Olympic flame: French banks' support for ArcelorMittal's greenwashing

Reclaim Finance criticizes ArcelorMittal for using the Paris 2024 Olympic flame, made from recycled steel, to mask a broader business strategy that relies on coal for 71% of its production and the use of carbon capture technologies. The report highlights that between 2016 and June 2023, four French banks—Crédit Agricole, BNP Paribas, Société Générale, and BPCE—provided nearly $12 billion in financing to the steelmaker. The author calls for these banks to adopt robust sectoral policies to restrict financing for new blast furnaces and companies developing metallurgical coal projects.

• ArcelorMittal uses the low-carbon nature of the Olympic flame to project environmental exemplarity, yet the company uses coal for 71% of its production and has a carbon intensity higher than the industry average.
• ArcelorMittal's decarbonization strategy is described as 'two-speed', prioritizing green hydrogen in Europe while continuing to build coal-fired blast furnaces in other regions and relying on carbon capture, utilization and sequestration (CCUS), a technology the document claims has a history of failure.
• Between 2016 and June 2023, four French banks provided nearly $12 billion to ArcelorMittal: Crédit Agricole ($4,244 million), BNP Paribas ($3,818 million), Société Générale ($3,672 million), and BPCE ($1,021 million).
• The document asserts that French banks lack sufficient commitments to the steel sector, noting that while some have extended thermal coal policies to metallurgical coal at the project level, they still provide corporate-level financing to companies developing new metallurgical coal projects, such as Glencore and BHP.
• ArcelorMittal has stated it will not adopt decarbonization targets based on the Science Based Target Initiative methodology.

APA

Martin, L. (2024). Olympic flame: French banks' support for ArcelorMittal's greenwashing. Reclaim Finance. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2024/05/07/olympic-flame-french-banks-support-for-arcelormittals-greenwashing/

Chicago

Martin, Léo. Olympic flame: French banks' support for ArcelorMittal's greenwashing. Reclaim Finance, 2024. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2024/05/07/olympic-flame-french-banks-support-for-arcelormittals-greenwashing/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Martin |first1=Léo |title=Olympic flame: French banks' support for ArcelorMittal's greenwashing |publisher=Reclaim Finance |date=7 May 2024 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2024/05/07/olympic-flame-french-banks-support-for-arcelormittals-greenwashing/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{martin2024olympic, author = {Martin, Léo}, title = {{Olympic flame: French banks' support for ArcelorMittal's greenwashing}}, publisher = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2024}, month = may, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2024/05/07/olympic-flame-french-banks-support-for-arcelormittals-greenwashing/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }