Our organisations, supported by many citizens, are convinced that litigation before the courts is a powerful tool to ensure that the main players of the climate crisis are held accountable and forced to comply with climate objectives, but also to allow a public debate on these crucial social issues for our future.
The steps of the legal process:
- October 26th, 2022: Friends of the Earth France, Notre Affaire À Tous and Oxfam France gave BNP Paribas formal notice to adopt reasonable and appropriate climate vigilance measures, integrated into a new vigilance plan and effectively implemented, within three months. In the absence of a satisfactory response from BNP, they can turn to the judge and take the multinational to court before the Paris Judicial Court.
- January 24, 2023: At the end of the legal 3-month period, BNP Paribas responded to our formal notice by communicating on new commitments. However, neither these public promises, nor the official reply given by the bank to the lawyers representing the three NGOs are enough : the bank still does not refrain from supporting new oil and gas projects nor engage an exit from the sector.
- February 23, 2023: We take BNP Paribas to court before the Paris Judicial Court. It is the first climate litigation in the world to make a commercial bank to face with its climate legal obligations.