PARIS (Reuters) – About a dozen activists from the Extinction Rebellion climate group briefly occupied the entrance lobby of French bank BNP Paribas’ headquarters in Paris on Friday morning in protest of what they said are BNP’s links with energy group TotalEnergies, which holds its annual shareholders meeting on Friday afternoon.
Environmentalist protesters, some wearing white masks, briefly shouted slogans and threw around fake money before police pushed them out of the building.
Extinction Rebellion said in a statement the action was part of a campaign against TotalEnergies and its partners.
It said that several NGOs are denouncing TotalEnergies’ decision not to put the usual “Say on Climate” questions on its climate strategy to the vote at the shareholders meeting and said this was part of “the fossil fuel industry’s unabashed backtracking on its human and environmental commitments.”
Earlier this year, TotalEnergies said it would not put a vote to investors on its sustainability strategy progress report and only consult shareholders in the event of a strategy change. The company instead will hold a climate debate during the shareholders meeting.
It did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday’s action.
BNP Paribas said it condemned “the aggressive actions of Extinction Rebellion and all forms of physical violence”.
It added that BNP Paribas is committed to supporting the energy transition and that any new financing it grants to the energy production sector is almost exclusively reserved for low-carbon energy sources.
TotalEnergies’ shareholders meeting at its headquarters in the La Defense business district starts at 1400 CET.
Extinction Rebellion said that in the afternoon activists will converge on “a symbolic Parisian site” to hold a “Counter-General Energy Assembly,” without naming the site.
(Reporting by Lucien Libert, Nicolas Coupe, America Hernandez and Makini Brice; Writing by GV De Clercq)
