"Statement on BNP Paribas Pledge To End New Financing for Amazon Oil Drilling", 04 May 2022

...BNP Paribas became the first major bank to adopt a geographical exclusion of oil and gas from the Amazon rainforest. The commitment follows sustained pressure and engagement by Indigenous leaders and campaigners at Amazon Watch and Stand.earth since 2020. Through the Exit Amazon Oil & Gas campaign, advocates are demanding banks stop backing fossil fuel extraction in the world’s largest rainforest, given its biodiversity, cultural importance, and vital role in regulating the Earth's climate.

BNP Paribas’ pledge to “no longer finance or invest in companies producing out of oil and gas reserves in the Amazon” or in [companies] “developing related infrastructures” is a momentous move for the rainforest currently at a tipping point of ecological collapse. The bank has also committed to “no longer finance any oil and gas projects and related infrastructure in the Arctic and in the Amazon regions.”

If BNP follows through on its new commitment, it will have a significant impact on oil and gas operations on the ground in the Amazon...

Campaigners are concerned about whether the firm will sell its current holdings in oil and gas companies operating in the Amazon given that BNP Paribas’ Asset Management arm has been found to hold shares in GeoPark...[,]...that has alleged ties to paramilitary groups terrorizing local campesino and Indigenous environmental activists...

...BNP Paribas...commits to exclude all financing and investment in new oil and gas projects located in regions designated as categories I to IV by the IUCN in either Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, or Venezuela, or in the Amazon Sacred Headwaters region...