At least 46 French financial institutions, belonging to 31 financial groups, now have policies limiting their financial services to the thermal coal sector. These numbers are expected to increase following the commitment made by the Paris financial center in July 2019 that all French financial players must have adopted a phase-out policy for coal by mid-2020.

Beyond quantity, quality is an issue. Today, the analysis shows that only French 20 financial players have an effective policy to support a coal phase-out within the timeframe needed to meet the 1.5°C target.

The policies adopted by French financial players are particularly worrying when put into perspective. French financial players began adopting exclusion policies covering the entire coal sector in 2015, long after the first warnings from scientists on the climate impact of coal. Despite multiple revisions of these policies, most still remain insufficient.