France's Credit Mutuel to stop financing energy groups that aren't cutting oil and gas output

PARIS (Reuters) - French banking group Credit Mutuel Alliance Federale said on Thursday that from July 2024 it would stop financing energy companies that aren't on track to reduce their oil and gas production.

Credit Mutuel, a Strasbourg-based cooperative bank that regroups 14 regional bodies, already excludes companies with coal mining, power or coal infrastructure expansion plans.

"Any energy company that does not have a proven trajectory of decreasing hydrocarbon production from one year to the next will no longer be eligible for financing from Credit Mutuel Alliance Federale and its subsidiaries," it said in a statement.

The announcement coincided with the publication of the 2023 edition of the "Banking on Climate Report", in which advocacy groups such as Rainforest Action Network, Oil Change International and Reclaim Finance list every year the lenders most exposed to the financing of fossil fuels.

Credit Mutuel increased fossil fuel financing -- defined as loans and underwriting for bonds and equities -- eightfold in 2022 to $108 million, according to the report.

Credit Mutuel did not immediately respond to a request for comment on that figure.

"Reclaim Finance welcomes the group's willingness to change course but regrets the clumsy approach of reducing production when the stated objective is to stop oil and gas expansion," the advocacy group said in a statement.

(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Susan Fenton)