‘Green finance’ standards ineffective with smaller firms – BdF paper

“Green finance” commitments by French banks are having some effect on loans to larger polluting firms, but none when it comes to smaller businesses, a working paper published by the Banque de France argues.

In Banks’ climate commitments and credit to brown industries: new evidence for France, Jean-Stéphane Mésonnier looks at whether French banks’ public commitments on the environment have helped to reduce carbon emissions.

The author uses data on banks’ credit exposures, covering loans to 50