Flamme olympique : le soutien des banques françaises au greenwashing d’ArcelorMittal

Reclaim Finance claims that ArcelorMittal uses the low-carbon recycled steel of the Paris 2024 Olympic flame to mask a global strategy that continues to build coal-fired blast furnaces. The organization highlights that four major French banks—BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale, and BPCE—provided nearly 13 billion US$ to the company between 2016 and June 2023, urging them to adopt stricter sectoral policies to end financing for new coal-based steel projects and the companies that develop them.

• ArcelorMittal is accused of 'greenwashing' by promoting the recycled steel used for the Paris 2024 Olympic flame while maintaining a global production model where 71% of production uses coal and carbon intensity remains higher than the industry average.
• The company's climate strategy is described as 'two-speed,' focusing on green hydrogen in Europe while continuing to build coal-fired blast furnaces elsewhere, relying on Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration (CCUS) technology which the document claims has a history of failure.
• Between 2016 and June 2023, four French banks provided nearly 13 billion US$ (approximately 12 billion euros) to ArcelorMittal: Crédit Agricole (4,244 million US$), BNP Paribas (3,818 million US$), Société Générale (3,672 million US$), and BPCE (1,021 million US$).
• Reclaim Finance asserts that French banks lack robust sectoral policies for steel, allowing them to fund companies that develop new metallurgical coal projects through corporate-level financing rather than project-specific loans. For example, BPCE provided 1.6 billion US$ to Glencore between 2016 and 2023.
• ArcelorMittal has reportedly declined to adopt decarbonization targets based on the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi) methodology, despite having helped develop the standard.

APA

Martin, L. (2024). Flamme olympique : le soutien des banques françaises au greenwashing d’ArcelorMittal. Reclaim Finance. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/2024/05/07/flamme-olympique-le-soutien-des-banques-francaises-au-greenwashing-darcelormittal/

Chicago

Martin, Léo. Flamme olympique : le soutien des banques françaises au greenwashing d’ArcelorMittal. Reclaim Finance, 2024. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/2024/05/07/flamme-olympique-le-soutien-des-banques-francaises-au-greenwashing-darcelormittal/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Martin |first1=Léo |title=Flamme olympique : le soutien des banques françaises au greenwashing d’ArcelorMittal |publisher=Reclaim Finance |date=7 May 2024 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/2024/05/07/flamme-olympique-le-soutien-des-banques-francaises-au-greenwashing-darcelormittal/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{martin2024flamme, author = {Martin, Léo}, title = {{Flamme olympique : le soutien des banques françaises au greenwashing d’ArcelorMittal}}, publisher = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2024}, month = may, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/2024/05/07/flamme-olympique-le-soutien-des-banques-francaises-au-greenwashing-darcelormittal/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }