Publication – Recommendations of the Sustainable Finance Observatory’s Scientific and Expert Committee

One year after the Sustainable Finance Observatory launch, the Scientific and Expert Committee released its new recommendations on non-conventional hydrocarbons and alignment strategies.

The Scientific and Expert Committee believes that the credibility of greening of the Paris financial center depends on the exit from coal financing by 2030 in the European Union and OECD countries, and by 2040 in the rest of the world (as recommended by the February 25, 2021 opinion), as well as on the effective support of the fossil fuel industry in its decarbonization process, by integrating the issues related to a just transition.

In order to align with the scientific imperative to halt all new fossil fuel projects and to reduce oil and gas production, the Scientific and Expert Committee is publishing its first recommendations on unconventional oil and gas.

These recommendations include :

• A precise definition of unconventional hydrocarbons: activities and value chain
• The Committee’s call for the definition of a common standard of good industrial practices to be required from their counterparts
• Practical proposals regarding criteria for exclusion policies
• Indicators that are required from the Observatory to report on these issues
• Seven recommendations to define a ambitious alignment strategy
• A clarification of the notion of alignment