France’s BNP Paribas has announced it is slashing its fossil fuel lending just hours after a clutch of British actors demanded its UK counterparts did the same.
The top French bank said it would cut its fossil fuel loan book to less than €1bn by 2030 or an 80% reduction from currently.
BNP said it stopped lending on new projects in 2016 but this new plan will accelerate its withdrawal from projects in oil extraction and production still ongoing.
The bank said it would up its lending towards "low-carbon, primarily renewable, energies" to €40bn euros by 2030 compared to its previous target of €30bn.
Gas project financing will also reduce by more than 30% by 2030, BNP Paribas said in its statement.
Pressure is mounting on banks to account for lending to the oil and gas industry.
Chief executives of the UK's top five banks today received an open letter from lobby group Make My Money Matter calling on them to stop financing fossil fuel investments.
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Signatories included the actors Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Mark Rylance, and director Richard Curtis alongside other celebrity names such as Christiana Figueres, Caroline Lucas, Bill McKibben and Brian Eno.
Whether BNP Paribas had been contacted as well as the UK banks was not clear.