On the night of February 6 to 7, activists from the environmental social movement Extinction Rebellion Montagne Noire took action in Mazamet and Castres, as in some thirty other towns in the country, against BNP PARIBAS. This action, which targeted vending machines in particular, was intended to denounce bank financing in the development of fossil fuels.
“BNP Paribas is the 1st European financier and the 5th in the world for the development of fossil fuels. As a founding member of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance and a member of the Science-Based Targets initiative, BNP Paribas is committed to complying with the IPCC’s investment recommendations. However, the bank still refuses to declare its true carbon footprint, which would be around 750 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent according to Oxfam estimates”, writes the movement in a press release sent to our editorial staff. Extinction Rébellion also specifies that “before 2019, BNP PARIBAS was the bank that charged the highest fees in the event of a bank overdraft, rejected check or direct debit”. The movement demands: “the explicit and abrupt cessation of the financing of the fossil fuel activities of TotalEnergies; a commitment under legal constraint not to support any new fossil fuel project, directly or indirectly; the capping of banking incident fees at €5 for people in a situation of financial fragility”.
Extinction Rebellion also ensures that this type of punch action could be multiplied “as long as the BNP does not take its responsibilities”. On Saturday, activists from the group took part in the occupation of a house, located in the town of Saint-Germain-des-Prés belonging to the concessionaire of the possible A69 motorway (Castres-Toulouse) before being dislodged by the police station.
