Actifs fossiles, les nouveaux subprimes ?

The report warns that 11 major Eurozone banks hold over 530 billion euros in fossil fuel assets, representing 95% of their total equity. It argues that these assets are prone to becoming 'stranded assets' as the world transitions to meet the Paris Agreement, potentially triggering a financial crisis similar to the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. The authors critique 'green finance' as largely greenwashing and call for the European Central Bank (ECB) to align its monetary policy with climate goals, increase capital requirements for fossil fuel exposure, and establish a public 'bad bank' to manage the phased extinction of these assets.

• The 11 largest banks in the Eurozone hold a combined stock of over 530 billion euros in assets linked to fossil fuels, which equals 95% of their total equity.
• The ratio of fossil assets to equity varies significantly across the studied banks, ranging from 68% for Santander to 131% for Crédit Agricole.
• If the value of fossil assets dropped to zero, five banks—including three of the five largest—would lack sufficient equity to absorb the losses: Crédit Agricole, Société Générale, Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, and UniCredit.
• Despite climate commitments, the 11 studied banks provided an additional 95 billion euros in financing to fossil fuels in 2019 alone.
• The report characterizes current 'green finance' as largely greenwashing, noting that 94% of 'socially responsible investment' (ISR) labeled funds studied by Reclaim Finance still finance companies with harmful environmental and social practices.
• The European Central Bank's (ECB) 'market neutrality' principle creates a pro-carbon bias, with over 60% of corporate assets repurchased via quantitative easing belonging to high CO2-emitting sectors.
• The authors propose the creation of a European 'fossil bank'—a public bad bank subsidiary of the ECB—to buy back fossil assets from banks under specific conditions to facilitate a just transition.
• To prevent a systemic crisis, the report recommends increasing capital requirements for fossil fuel exposure under the Capital Requirement Regulation (CRR) and creating a specific 'climate' systemic risk buffer.

APA

GIRAUD, G., NICOL, C., BENAITEAU, S., BONAVENTURE, M., CHAAOUB, V., JEGO, M., TSANGA, A., MITTEAU, G., PHILIPPOT, L., POIDATZ, A., & SCHREIBER, P. (2021). Actifs fossiles, les nouveaux subprimes ? Reclaim Finance. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Rapport-actifs-fossiles-VF-FR.pdf

Chicago

GIRAUD, Gaël, Christian NICOL, Solène BENAITEAU, Marion BONAVENTURE, Valériane CHAAOUB, Martin JEGO, Audrey TSANGA, et al. Actifs fossiles, les nouveaux subprimes ? Reclaim Finance, 2021. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Rapport-actifs-fossiles-VF-FR.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=GIRAUD |first1=Gaël |last2=NICOL |first2=Christian |last3=BENAITEAU |first3=Solène |last4=BONAVENTURE |first4=Marion |last5=CHAAOUB |first5=Valériane |last6=JEGO |first6=Martin |last7=TSANGA |first7=Audrey |last8=MITTEAU |first8=Gilles |last9=PHILIPPOT |first9=Lorette |display-authors=etal |title=Actifs fossiles, les nouveaux subprimes ? |publisher=Reclaim Finance |date=June 2021 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Rapport-actifs-fossiles-VF-FR.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{giraud2021actifs, author = {GIRAUD, Gaël and NICOL, Christian and BENAITEAU, Solène and BONAVENTURE, Marion and CHAAOUB, Valériane and JEGO, Martin and TSANGA, Audrey and MITTEAU, Gilles and PHILIPPOT, Lorette and POIDATZ, Alexandre and SCHREIBER, Paul}, title = {{Actifs fossiles, les nouveaux subprimes ?}}, institution = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2021}, month = jun, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Rapport-actifs-fossiles-VF-FR.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }