Environmental strategy

At the end of 2023, our volume of renewable energy financing (non-nuclear assets of Crédit Agricole CIB and Crédit Agricole Transitions & Énergies/CA Leasing & Factoring) was €13 billion. It corresponds to renewable energy generation of around 22 TWh, or more than half the electricity consumption of a city such as Paris (consumption of 36.6 TWh in 2021).

Over the past five years, Crédit Agricole has provided more than €15 billion in financing for 412 renewable energy generation projects, 65% of which were in France. On average, in the last five years, Crédit Agricole financed one renewable energy generation project every five days.

Through the launch of Crédit Agricole Transitions & Énergies (Transitions and Energies):

In October 2023, Crédit Agricole Transitions & Énergies announced its ambitions and roadmap by positioning itself as a regional energy provider. This new business line reinforces and coordinates the Group’s existing transition ecosystem with three overarching missions:

• Network leader, ensuring consistency and improving the Group’s efficiency.
• Transition consultant, supporting all customers through the transition process and capturing the value linked to this transformation, including corporates and local authorities via a range of solutions offered by R3 (100 consulting experts and transition solutions in 2023 and 200 by 2025), of which Crédit Agricole Transitions & Énergies is a core shareholder.
• Producer and supplier of low-carbon energy from short supply chains, leveraging the Group’s ability to identify and finance renewable energy generation assets in different regions, supporting market growth and becoming a producer to accelerate the energy transition.

In 2023, Crédit Agricole Transitions & Énergies launched an initial offer to supply fixed-price, locally generated green electricity for local authorities operated by Selfee¹. It also signed the first Corporate Power Purchase Agreement – a power purchase agreement between a producer and a (corporate) consumer, guaranteeing the latter a supply of renewable electricity from existing or future facilities.

See also CA Transitions & Énergies in “Ambitions 2025” in action

¹ Selfee, in which Crédit Agricole is a core shareholder, is an electricity market operator established in 2017 in cooperation with a dozen local authorities in France. It enables the direct purchase of locally generated electricity at a local price, by acting as the sole intermediary with the energy producer.

Through financing solutions:

• Together with the Group’s retail banks, Crédit Agricole Transitions & Énergies has enabled the financing of €785 million in the energy sector.
• Crédit Agricole Leasing & Factoring, which finances infrastructure projects with local authorities and their private operators, has established a partnership with experts from the Crédit Agricole Transitions & Énergies-Unifergie division to increase the capacity to identify and finance projects. CA Leasing & Factoring has also set up a new Infrastructure Financing Department focused on non-energy utilities (water and sanitation, transport etc.).
• LCL has granted 33% of index-linked financing (sustainability-linked loans) to corporates, of the total medium- and long-term financing. It also offers its SME and MSE customers targeted financing (green loans or social loans) under the umbrella of “impact financing”. Furthermore, the amount of project financing outstandings for renewable energy projects amounted to €304 million at the end of 2023.
• Crédit Agricole CIB has granted €17 billion in green loans for renewable energy projects, low-carbon assets, transition projects in various sectors and energy efficiency projects.

Through investments:

• Crédit Agricole Assurances has contributed to the financing of 13.5 GW of installed renewable energy capacity in France, close to its target of 14 GW by 2025.
• Crédit Agricole S.A., with €25.2 billion in green, social and sustainability bonds as of 31 December 2023, including €7.8 billion in green bonds, has far exceeded the target set in 2022 of having outstandings in excess of €6 billion.

Through customer savings:

• LCL holds €1.9 billion of assets in “LCL Impact Climat” funds, its range of wealth management investment vehicles focused on financing solutions that seek to combat climate change and help reduce, neutralise or offset CO₂ emissions.
• Indosuez Wealth Management has expanded its offering, allowing customers to get involved in financing social and environmental transitions according to their aspirations, with the launch of new products and funds in France and Monaco. At the same time, the Group’s policy on coal has been adopted and rolled out across all management (Indosuez’s discretionary investment policy).

This component of our transition plan is the most ambitious: supporting all our customers – individuals, small businesses, corporates, farmers and local authorities – at different stages of their transition pathway towards a sustainable economy with low-carbon solutions, and supporting society through its transitions.

To closely monitor its contribution to the decarbonisation of the economy, Crédit Agricole has implemented action plans to reduce financed emissions, which represent 99% of its carbon footprint. On that basis, we have identified 10 sectors and made commitments for eight of them. These 10 sectors represented 60% of our financing portfolio in 2020. We have also developed a wide range of solutions to support transitions.

Interim targets and action plans for the 10 sectors:

Significant progress in achieving our 2030 commitments at the end of 2023¹

New commitments announced at the end of 2023

A collective endeavour to make our commitments an integral part of our action

• In our offerings: driving the expansion of our services and expertise.
• In our processes: managing carbon as a scarce resource, factored into our budgetary processes, risk policies and lending decisions.
• In our reporting: communicating transparently each year on the progress of our decarbonisation pathways.

Solutions fostering innovation and access to green energy

• In 2023, the Livret Engagé Sociétaire savings account guaranteed more than €14 billion in funding to finance projects related to the climate and the transition to a low-carbon economy, the success of the agricultural and agri-food transition, and projects to support food sovereignty or strengthen cohesion and social inclusion. Nearly 1.3 million mutual shareholders have already chosen this accessible, flexible and risk-free account with capital protection for their savings.
• The website “J’écorénove mon logement” had received 590,000 visits by the end of 2023. This online platform on the energy renovation of homes is aimed at individual customers and members of the public, offering them end-to-end support as well as access to learning content. The site provides a quick and accurate estimate, in less than 10 minutes, of the needs and solutions available, with the help of various simulators (energy performance certificate (DPE), help with grants, loans etc.).

Go to the “J’écorénove mon logement” website

Solutions promoting low-carbon mobility:

• One in four new vehicles financed by CA Consumer Finance are electrified vehicles². This brings CA Consumer Finance nearer to its target of one in two new vehicles financed being electrified and one in three new vehicles being fully electric by 2025. In 2023, the significant events and initiatives aimed at reaching these targets included:
  • Partnerships established or extended with electric and/or hybrid vehicle manufacturers: General Motors, CAKE, BYD, MG France, Tesla etc.
  • More than 200 customers signed up to the electric vehicle leasing scheme, which starts at €100/month, via the partner networks of Sofinco Auto-Moto-Loisirs.
  • More than 2,000 households benefited from the €99/month leasing scheme launched in July 2023 with the manufacturer MG Motor.
  • 200 electric vehicles were made available to local residents for car-sharing in Lyon and neighbouring municipalities, as part of the E+Share Drivalia sustainable car-sharing service launched in October 2023.
  • The first pilot scheme for Agilauto Partage, a rural car-sharing service, was launched in the Pays de Fayence community of municipalities in partnership with Crédit Agricole Côte d’Azur.
  • 62,726 visits were made to You R Mobile, Sofinco’s web platform dedicated to low-carbon mobility, to support French people in making these changes.
  • Outside France, 400 electric or hybrid vehicles were financed by Credibom, CA CF’s Portuguese subsidiary, via its Pisca-Green web platform, and 167,000 fully electric vehicles were financed by CA CF GAC-Sofinco in China.
• 2,700 consumer finance applications were handled by LCL for the purchase of low-emission vehicles (CO₂ emissions ≤50 g/km), as part of a preferential-rate offer for a new or second-hand purchase.

² Hybrid or electric

Solutions focused on housing and construction

• A range of loans to finance works to improve the energy performance of homes
  • In retail banking (see table below)
  • CA Consumer Finance financed €369 million in energy renovation loans in France in 2023, ahead of its target of €1 billion by 2025, including €800 million in the French market.
• The development of low-carbon property by Crédit Agricole Immobilier, which has delivered on its commitments with three new developments that reuse construction waste, and by signing the Bois-Biosourcés Pact to create a virtuous ecosystem in the timber industry.

This third component of our transition plan stems from the first two: it is the phasing-out of fossil fuel financing, which we are monitoring both in terms of financing granted and financed emissions (our customers’ CO₂ emissions).

To achieve this, we have adopted an industry pathway – regularly updated in the light of scientific studies – which targets a -75% reduction in financed emissions between 2020 and 2030, i.e. twice as quickly as the International Energy Agency’s NZE Scenario. This policy requires a selective approach to be taken for energy companies, focusing on support for our customers engaged in the transition and essentially supporting low-carbon diversification.

We have also stopped financing any new fossil fuel extraction projects.

Targets monitored by Crédit Agricole S.A. for several years

• June 2019: rollout by the Group of its climate strategy aimed at gradually reallocating its financing and investment portfolios in line with the temperature goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, and commitment to a phase-out of thermal coal by 2030 and 2040, depending on the country.
• From 2020: implementation of the climate policy in sector thermal coal policies within the entities, continued financing of renewable energies and acceleration of responsible investment policies.
• In 2021: commitment by the Group to help achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 by joining the four Net Zero initiatives for the financial sector.
• In 2022 and 2023, strong acceleration of the climate strategy: launch of Crédit Agricole Transitions & Énergies, decarbonisation commitments made for 10 sector financing portfolios by 2030 in order to contribute to carbon neutrality by 2050.

³ NZIA ceased being active at the end of December 2023 to be replaced by a new alliance.

The planet and humanity face a major crisis on two fronts: biodiversity loss and climate change. Economic actors can be affected in various ways by the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of nature (erosion, lower yields etc.), and can also have a negative impact on them (deforestation, fragmentation of ecosystems etc.). Taking action in support of nature and biodiversity is therefore essential to Crédit Agricole’s environmental strategy.

Statement on biodiversity and natural capital

Published in 2023, this first statement confirms the Group’s approach to biodiversity and natural capital based on scientific work. It identifies five priorities to address this significant issue.

1. Assess the material impacts and risks related to the loss of nature on our activities: Crédit Agricole S.A. has undertaken to define potential indicators, tools and methods related to biodiversity and natural capital.
2. Integrate nature and biodiversity criteria into sector policies: in financing and investment portfolios.
3. Mobilise financial resources for activities that benefit nature: Crédit Agricole S.A. acts through its financing, investment and insurance products. The Group also promotes projects to raise awareness of biodiversity among its employees and support its customers.
4. Support collective action to counter the decline in nature and ecosystem services: Crédit Agricole S.A. works with national and international coalitions to better understand the impacts and risks of the degradation of nature and biodiversity. It also seeks to better understand the opportunities to contribute to its protection, conservation and restoration.
   In 2023, Crédit Agricole S.A. became co-chair of the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) Nature Target Setting Working Group of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI). This working group brings together 36 banks worldwide. Its main aim is to develop an initial guide of recommended targets for banks that is aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
5. Reduce our operating footprint and promote biodiversity: Crédit Agricole S.A. is tackling its potential direct footprint on biodiversity and natural capital by protecting and promoting biodiversity on its campuses.

After joining the Net Zero Banking Alliance in 2021 and in line with the announcements of the Societal Project to contribute to carbon neutrality by 2050, Crédit Agricole S.A. is continuing its efforts to reduce greenhouse gases linked to its operations.

Target for 2030: -50% reduction in Crédit Agricole S.A.’s direct carbon footprint

• -50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions related to energy consumption by buildings and the vehicle fleet (scopes 1 and 2) between 2019 and 2030 (absolute target);
• -50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions linked to business travel (scope 3 category 6) between 2019 and 2030 (absolute target).

In line with the latest scientific evidence, Crédit Agricole S.A. submitted its reduction pathways to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in late 2022. The target validation process continued in 2023, committing us to a greater reduction than required (-50% versus -46.2% according to SBTi).