Five years ago, taking action on coal was a good first step. Today, leaving it at that is a crime.
Our carbon budget no longer allows us to develop new fossil fuel projects. But companies in the sector, guided by oil and gas majors like Total, continue to invest in exploration and open new fossil fuel reserves. As the death toll and destruction caused by unprecedented floods, droughts, fires and storms increases from year to year, their irresponsibility must no longer be tolerated, insured or financed.
Reclaim Finance calls on banks, insurers and investors to take the following measures to not make the 2020 decade another lost decade for climate action. We have only a few years to avoid climate chaos.
Stem oil and gas expansion
1. No longer provide direct support for hydrocarbon exploration or new oil and gas projects, especially extraction or transport projects linked to the development of new fossil fuel reserves.
2. Divestment and exclusion of financial services to companies that plan and/or invest in:
a/ The exploration of fossil fuels.
b/ New unconventional oil and gas projects, including shale oil and gas or oil sands projects as well as drilling in the Arctic as defined by the AMAP – Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme.
c/ New oil or gas pipelines linked to the opening of new fossil fuel reserves, or new terminals for the export or import of liquefied natural gas.
Begin the exit from oil and gas
3. Commit to reducing to zero all financial services and the exposure of investment, financing and insurance portfolios to the oil and gas sectors by 2040 at the latest in EU and OECD countries and by 2050 elsewhere.
4. Divest from and suspend financial services for companies holding more than 5% of their reserves in oil sands, shale oil and gas, and/or Arctic and deep water extraction.
5. Condition all financial services to oil and gas companies, from 2021, on their commitment
a/ To align their activities with the 1.5°C target
b/ to gradually transform their activities towards non-greenhouse-gas-emitting activities and close their existing oil and gas operations at the latest by 2040 at the latest in EU/OECD countries and by 2050 elsewhere.
6. Condition all financial services to oil and gas companies, after 2021, on the adoption of short, medium and long-term targets for the absolute reduction of their greenhouse gas emissions from all their activities (Scope 1 to 3). These targets must :
a/ Align with the scientific imperatives of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and moving out of oil and gas by 2040 at the latest in the EU/OECD countries and by 2050 elsewhere.
b/ Include a rapid reduction to zero of all capital expenditure on oil and gas production and transport projects and an investment increase in non-greenhouse-gas-emitting technologies.