Comprendre le ratio de financement à l’énergie (ESFR) et décrypter les publications des banques

The Energy Supply Financing Ratio (ESFR) compares a bank's financing of fossil fuels against its financing of sustainable energy alternatives. Based on the International Energy Agency's (IEA) Net Zero Emissions by 2050 scenario, a ratio of 6:1 is required by 2030 to meet climate goals. However, Reclaim Finance finds that the 65 largest global banks averaged a ratio of only 0.42:1 between 2021 and 2024. The document warns that banks often use misleading methodologies—such as excluding capital markets activities or including fossil-fuel-linked technologies like CCUS in 'low-carbon' categories—to greenwash their climate strategies.

• The Energy Supply Financing Ratio (ESFR) is derived from the International Energy Agency's (IEA) 'Net Zero Emissions by 2050' (NZE) scenario, which requires a 6:1 ratio by 2030. This means for every dollar invested in fossil fuels, six dollars must be invested in clean energy supply, primarily electricity.
• Global banking trends are significantly misaligned with the 6:1 target. Between 2021 and 2024, the 65 largest banks worldwide allocated an average of only 42 cents to sustainable electricity supply for every dollar allocated to fossil fuels, resulting in a ratio of 0.42:1.
• Bank disclosures of the ESFR often contain severe methodological biases that hinder the assessment of actual decarbonization. Common flaws include limiting the fossil fuel scope to only certain parts of the value chain (e.g., excluding midstream or gas power plants), counting only loans while ignoring capital markets activities (which represented over 42% of fossil fuel financing for the top 65 banks between 2021 and 2025), and including fossil-fuel-linked technologies like Carbon Capture and Storage (CCUS) or fossil hydrogen in 'low-carbon' categories.
• There is a regional divide in how banks report the ESFR. North American banks (including JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Scotiabank, and RBC) generally use a broader scope including the full fossil fuel value chain and bonds, but often include fossil-linked technologies in their low-carbon figures. French banks (BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, and BPCE) are the only ones mentioned as having set targets based on the ratio, but they use a narrower scope limited to credits and partial fossil fuel value chains.

APA

Hermant, R. (2026). Comprendre le ratio de financement à l’énergie (ESFR) et décrypter les publications des banques. Reclaim Finance. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/2026/09/21/comprendre-le-ratio-de-financement-a-lenergie-esfr-et-decrypter-les-publications-des-banques/

Chicago

Hermant, Rémi. Comprendre le ratio de financement à l’énergie (ESFR) et décrypter les publications des banques. Reclaim Finance, 2026. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/2026/09/21/comprendre-le-ratio-de-financement-a-lenergie-esfr-et-decrypter-les-publications-des-banques/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hermant |first1=Rémi |title=Comprendre le ratio de financement à l’énergie (ESFR) et décrypter les publications des banques |publisher=Reclaim Finance |date=21 September 2026 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/2026/09/21/comprendre-le-ratio-de-financement-a-lenergie-esfr-et-decrypter-les-publications-des-banques/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hermant2026comprendre, author = {Hermant, Rémi}, title = {{Comprendre le ratio de financement à l’énergie (ESFR) et décrypter les publications des banques}}, institution = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2026}, month = sep, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/2026/09/21/comprendre-le-ratio-de-financement-a-lenergie-esfr-et-decrypter-les-publications-des-banques/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }