BNP Paribas

In terms of its approach towards impact management, BNP Paribas acknowledges the positive and negative impacts of its financing activities and it prioritised its impacts through a materiality assessment which included feedback from external stakeholders. The financial institution assigns the responsibility for sustainability issues to the Board of Directors and links the remuneration of its executive team to sustainability performance criteria. Furthermore, it publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment, having 7 women in a 15-member Board of Directors. It also discloses it allocated EUR 10 million to make up for any discrepancies related to gender in annual compensation. BNP Paribas discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member as well as the positions it takes in its lobbying and political engagement activities on sustainability themes. 

As a member of several Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) initiatives, BNP Paribas has set a target of net-zero financed emissions by 2050. The financial institution discloses the key sectors it has identified as priorities to engage with on climate change, specifically on the topic of alignment with the Paris Agreement. Its subsidiary, BNP Paribas Asset Management is a member of Climate Action 100+. BNP Paribas aims to finance EUR 200 billion in climate solutions by 2025 and discloses that it has so far provided EUR 18 billion. It also has a target to provide EUR 4 billion to protect terrestrial and marine biodiversity. Furthermore, it is committed to minimising its negative impacts on nature and biodiversity and discloses a process for identifying its nature- and biodiversity-related impacts across all its financing activities. 

BNP Paribas has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and the ILO core labour rights. It describes the process for identifying and assessing human rights risks and impacts in its financing activities, discloses what it considers to be its salient human rights issues and describes its global system to take action to prevent, mitigate or remediate them. The financial institution engages with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities. BNP Paribas discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group. It discloses a global tax strategy and income tax payments for all its tax jurisdictions. It also reports the amount of finance it directs towards women entrepreneurs and SMEs.  

BNP Paribas has an opportunity to link the remuneration of its management team to sustainability performance criteria. In terms of gender equality, the bank also has an opportunity to reach at least 40% female representation in senior leadership positions. The financial institution could describe its engagement approach on sustainability themes and impact topics with clients and investees across its financing activities and sectors. 

While BNP Paribas has an interim intensity emission target for its lending activities to three industries, it has an opportunity to disclose an interim absolute emission target which covers all its financing activities and sectors. Although the financial institution discloses the aggregate amount of finance it devotes to renewable energy and green bonds, it has an opportunity to clarify what type of financing this involves and align with the internationally recognised frameworks. No evidence was found regarding BNP Paribas’ approach to fossil fuels that spans across the fossil fuel value chain and across its financing activities, such as the amount or share of finance it directs towards fuels, or its stance on financing companies with new fossil fuel projects.

While BNP Paribas provides the amount of financing and investments to microfinance institutions, it is not clear how much of this funding is devoted to low-income, developing countries. It could also publish a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect the health and safety of workers. The financial institution states that it has a process for identifying bribery and corruption but could disclose details of this.