On 18 December 2020, the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR) and the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) published a first report on the monitoring of climate commitments of French financial institutions (banks, insurers and asset management companies) .

It presented the initial work carried out in the context of the aforementioned monitoring exercise and made a number of recommendations aimed at credibly crediting climate commitments and enhancing transparency of public information. The report also provided a detailed analysis of the coal exit policies of financial firms and their implementation, following the Paris’ Financial Place Declaration of 2 July 2019, which invited French financial institutions to adopt a coal strategy, with a global divestment timetable .

The 2021 report continues this monitoring exercise and complements the initial analyses with a first assessment of the institutions’ commitments to other fossil fuels (oil and gas), with a focus on non-conventional hydrocarbons. It also provides first estimates of the exposure of French banks and insurers to fossil fuels.

The work was carried out by the Authorities on the basis of public information and detailed questionnaires sent out to the largest market participants (9 banks, 17 insurers and 20 asset management companies) , supplemented by bilateral discussions and exchanges that took place between July and September 2021. As in 2020, a comprehensive report on the monitoring and evaluation of climate change commitments will be published in December. It may eventually supplement the results presented here.

After a brief overview of the evolution of fossil fuel consumption and its contribution to global warming (section 1), the report details the results of the work undertaken by banks (section 2), insurers (section 3) and asset managers (section 4). It also analyses the implementation of the 2020 recommendations before updating and supplementing them (Section 5).

The main findings are summarised below and further broken down by sectors.