Crédit Agricole Toulouse 31 presents itself as “a facilitator towards the energy transition”
This time around, they weren’t there to present economic results. Nicolas Langevin, Chief Executive Officer, and Nicolas Mauré, Chairman of Crédit Agricole Toulouse 31, have chosen to meet the press to present the philosophy of their local bank in terms of ecological transition. The bank says it is part of the goal of carbon neutrality in 2050 [1].
The bank is committed internally (carbon footprint for the company and its employees, renovation in its branches) but above all wants to “encourage its customers and suppliers” to make progress on the development of their environmental practices. In 2022, it will continue a series of diagnostic interviews (around thirty have been carried out) with first of all large companies to take stock of their ecological policies. This operation is still in “a pilot phase”, admits Nicolas Langevin.
Objective: “Make the real economy run in the same direction as the planet”
The other announcements are the promotion to private customers of their green loans (for electric vehicles, energy renovation, etc.), of France Renov, a platform that wants to fight against “energy sieves” [2], and Greenflex, a company that provides green advice to businesses.
Note also the launch, with the consultancy firm Carbone 4, of a new mapping system “to better study climate risks in order to avoid supporting new constructions in dangerous areas”. The general manager says “he does not want to oppose the ecological approach and the economic approach”. He wants to make “the real economy turn in the same direction as the planet”. Crédit Agricole must be “a facilitator towards the energy transition”, he assures us. Will the few measures announced help? Nicolas Langevin recognizes that we are “far from the great ecological evening”. Otherwise, the bank “is doing its part”, according to its leaders, and wants to show that it is starting to draw a horizon on the subject. [3].
Matthias hardoy
On the photo: Nicolas Langevin, Managing Director and Nicolas Mauré, Chairman of Crédit Agricole Toulouse 31. Credit: MH
Remarks
[1] Balance between carbon emissions and carbon uptake from the atmosphere.
[3] According to the Banking on Climate Chaos 2021 report, drawn up by six NGOs, Crédit Agricole is the third French bank (behind BNP Paribas and Société Générale) that finances polluting companies the most, with some 64 billion dollars between 2016 and 2020.