LES 10 IDÉES REÇUES CONTRE L’ACTION CLIMATIQUE

The document argues that the Paris financial center continues to support oil and gas expansion despite commitments to the 1.5°C goal. It systematically dismantles ten 'received ideas' used by banks, insurers, and asset managers to justify this support, citing IEA and IPCC data to show that no new fossil fuel projects are compatible with net-zero pathways. The briefing highlights that 'transition' claims by oil majors are often unsupported by investment data and that engagement without the threat of exclusion is ineffective.

• Major French financial institutions, including BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale, BPCE/Natixis, AXA, SCOR, and Amundi, continue to support the expansion of oil and gas, including non-conventional sectors, despite public commitments to the 1.5°C target and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ).
• Scientific consensus and IEA scenarios indicate that limiting warming to 1.5°C requires an immediate halt to the development of new oil and gas fields and a reduction in production by 2030.
• The energy crisis resulting from the invasion of Russia does not justify new fossil fuel infrastructure; instead, existing European LNG import capacities are already sufficient to meet projected demand in climate-aligned scenarios.
• Natural gas is not a viable 'transition energy' because it is a fossil fuel composed mainly of methane, which has a warming power 86 times stronger than CO2 over 20 years.
• European oil and gas majors, including TotalEnergies, BP, Shell, Equinor, Eni, and Repsol, are not truly 'in transition' as they continue to explore new reserves and allocate the vast majority of their investments to fossil fuels.
• Investor engagement with fossil fuel companies is largely ineffective when it lacks precise demands, deadlines, and the credible threat of divestment or exclusion.
• Profits from fossil fuels are primarily used for shareholder dividends and buybacks rather than financing the green transition; for example, TotalEnergies allocated less than 10% of its 2021 operational cash flow to renewables.
• New 'low-emission' wells do not replace existing ones but add to them, and the sale of older, more polluting assets often transfers them to operators with no climate commitments, potentially increasing emissions.

APA

Delaporte, L.-M., Pinson, L., Schreiber, P., Maraval, C., Lentilhac, M., Her, H., & Lehnert, A. (2022). LES 10 IDÉES REÇUES CONTRE L’ACTION CLIMATIQUE. Reclaim Finance. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2022.11.08_10_Reclaim-Finance_10_idees_recues.pdf

Chicago

Delaporte, Louis-Maxence, Lucie Pinson, Paul Schreiber, Claire Maraval, Maude Lentilhac, Henri Her, and Anaïs Lehnert. LES 10 IDÉES REÇUES CONTRE L’ACTION CLIMATIQUE. Reclaim Finance, 2022. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2022.11.08_10_Reclaim-Finance_10_idees_recues.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Delaporte |first1=Louis-Maxence |last2=Pinson |first2=Lucie |last3=Schreiber |first3=Paul |last4=Maraval |first4=Claire |last5=Lentilhac |first5=Maude |last6=Her |first6=Henri |last7=Lehnert |first7=Anaïs |title=LES 10 IDÉES REÇUES CONTRE L’ACTION CLIMATIQUE |publisher=Reclaim Finance |date=November 2022 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2022.11.08_10_Reclaim-Finance_10_idees_recues.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{delaporte2022les, author = {Delaporte, Louis-Maxence and Pinson, Lucie and Schreiber, Paul and Maraval, Claire and Lentilhac, Maude and Her, Henri and Lehnert, Anaïs}, title = {{LES 10 IDÉES REÇUES CONTRE L’ACTION CLIMATIQUE}}, institution = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2022}, month = nov, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2022.11.08_10_Reclaim-Finance_10_idees_recues.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }