(Bloomberg) -- A group of Credit Suisse Group AG shareholders filed a resolution urging the bank to disclose more on how it's aligning its business with the 1.5° Celsius goal of the Paris climate agreement and how it will reduce its financing of fossil fuels to support that objective.
France's Amundi SA and a group of Swiss pension funds have endorsed the proposal, which was coordinated by responsible-investment advocates at ShareAction and Ethos Foundation. The investors proposed an amendment that would require Credit Suisse to provide additional disclosures and publish information on the short-, medium- and long-term steps it plans to take to lower its exposure to coal, oil and gas assets.
As major contributors to global warming via their financing and lending activities, banks are under increasing pressure to commit to shutting off the money pipeline to the fossil-fuel industry and instead use their vast resources to help limit global warming. And with Russia's war machine powered by fossil-fuel revenue, scrutiny of banks' financing is only set to intensify.
“The message from investors is clear: Credit Suisse must urgently back its long-term net-zero ambition with robust fossil-fuel disclosures, policies and targets,” said Jeanne Martin, senior campaign manager at ShareAction, in a statement. “Credit Suisse continues to heavily finance the oil and gas industry, usually with no strings attached.”
A Credit Suisse spokesman said the bank's sustainability position is clear and includes a public commitment to cut its net operational and financed emissions to zero by 2050. The Zurich-based company also said it has prioritized the oil, gas and coal sector as an area where it's pledged to set science-based goals to improve the monitoring and reduction of its emissions and lending exposure. Credit Suisse is scheduled to disclose preliminary information Thursday when the bank's 2021 corporate sustainability report is published.
The investor coalition together with the Ethos Foundation, which is composed of 235 Swiss pension funds and public-utility foundations, and nonprofit ShareAction praised Credit Suisse for being one of the first European banks to commit to aligning its financing with the Paris Agreement's temperature objective and to commit to setting science-based targets. They also said they're “concerned about the financial, regulatory and reputational risks that the company exposes itself to by continuing to finance activities that are seemingly incompatible with its own alignment objective.”
Since the Paris climate agreement was signed at the end of 2015, Credit Suisse has helped arrange $52 billion of bonds and loans for fossil-fuel companies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That puts the company among the largest European lenders to polluters, after Barclays Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc, BNP Paribas SA, Deutsche Bank AG, Societe Generale SA and Credit Agricole SA, the data show.
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“Banks have a key role to play to tackle climate change, starting with a strong reduction of their investments and financing of fossil energy,” Ethos Chief Executive Officer Vincent Kaufmann said in a statement. “While some progress has been made, Credit Suisse remains the Swiss bank most exposed to fossil energy. Its inadequate response to numerous governance issues, as well as its insufficient climate policy, has prompted Ethos and several of its members to co-file this resolution.”
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