France’s largest bank will stop financing companies linked to deforestation in the Amazon

BNP Paribas, the largest French bank, has announced that it will no longer finance companies that buy cattle or soy produced in the Amazon on land that was deforested after 2008. The promise also applies to grain or beef from the Brazilian Cerrado biome. The institution informed that it will only finance companies that commit to zero deforestation by 2025, according to the Reuters news agency.

The BNP’s stance is in line with the French government’s tightening siege on Jair Bolsonaro’s environmental policy, as exemplified by president Emmanuel Macron’s recent threat to discontinue the importation of Brazilian soybeans.