What are BNP Paribas’ three new sustainability commitments?

Agriculture and real estate

BNP Paribas has not yet set net zero targets for agriculture and real estate, but says mitigation efforts are possible.

“In the residential real estate sector, decarbonization is largely dependent on the local energy mix, which varies between European countries, and on still uncertain regulatory developments.

“Local regulations are still evolving and national implementations of the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive are yet to be determined.”

In a post on LinkedIn, BNP Paribas wrote: “No bank can carry out the renovation alone; it requires a collaborative effort from policymakers, financial actors, industry experts and consumers.

“That doesn’t mean we’re not doing everything we can to support our customers’ energy transition – our My Sustainable Home initiative continues to promote the financing of efficient properties, support renovations with dedicated loans and work with experts to offer comprehensive solutions “renovation”.

On agriculture, he added: “Agriculture is highly fragmented and has different emission profiles depending on crop, country, weather, soil conditions and farming practices.

“This diversity, combined with the lack of detailed customer-level climate data, makes adapting our portfolio particularly challenging.

“Other technical obstacles include still evolving methodologies and the lack of appropriate target setting scenarios.

“While statistical methods could estimate portfolio-wide emissions, they lack the granularity to accurately assess individual customers or farms.”

Jane Ambachtsheer, global head of sustainability at BNP Paribas Asset Management, said: “While we see progress towards net zero, the path is bumpy and not moving fast enough.”