A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #357 - When Ecology Is Used to Finance Pollution and Weapons (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The affair was revealed by a consortium of journalists called Voxeurop, 
which includes Mediapart, IrpiMedia (Italy), and El Pais (Spain). They 
discovered that a total of 50 billion euros from so-called "green" funds 
were invested in the defense sector under the guidance-and with the 
clear intention-of the European Commission. Some of these weapons are 
involved in the war in Gaza, while others await future conflicts... 
Before weapons, billions were also poured into the most polluting 
companies, such as Total and its ilk.

The Theory
To understand what green funds are, a little background is necessary. 
They are a means of financing the "ecological transition," created in 
2021 with the adoption by the European Union of the Green Deal, which is 
supposed to make the EU a "climate-neutral zone" by 2050. The amount of 
CO2 emitted serves as the benchmark. This new "green" label was intended 
to improve transparency for savers. These funds are divided into two 
categories: "Article 8" funds, also called "light green," where a 
portion of the assets must be eco-responsible; and "Article 9" or "dark 
green" funds, which are stricter because they must all be 
environmentally and socially sustainable. Simple, right? Except that 
Brussels refuses to define what constitutes a "sustainable investment." 
The judgment is left to the bankers themselves or to rating agencies, 
which decree a company's ecological or social value.

The farce is astounding and has even alarmed the French Financial 
Markets Authority (AMF), which declared in 2023 that "it is crucial, in 
order to reduce greenwashing, that the European Commission" tighten the 
rules and that there be "minimum standards, and that regulations clearly 
define what constitutes a sustainable investment." The heart of this 
greenwashing lies in a rating system reminiscent of a high school 
diploma from 1968! In these rating systems, environmental criteria count 
for only a small portion, allowing investment in companies that, while 
polluting, are highly rated for social responsibility and "governance."

And even for the "environmental emissions" aspect, the subterfuges are 
numerous. First, only the company's direct emissions are taken into 
account; indirect emissions are ignored. Thus, the rating agency MSCI 
considers TotalEnergies to be meeting the Paris Agreement target (2°C 
warming) because it does not include emissions generated by the 
combustion of the oil and gas produced by TotalEnergies. Second, carbon 
intensity is measured, not gross CO2 emissions. This intensity is 
calculated as follows: emissions divided by revenue.

The Practice
As we can see, green funds are immediately configured to serve 
capitalism as it currently exists and as it is most profitable. Thus, 
from 2021 to 2024, $33 billion was invested in the 25 oil companies most 
harmful to the climate (TotalEnergies, ENI, Shell, etc.); $20 billion 
was invested in automotive companies (Toyota, Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz, 
General Motors, etc.); $14 billion in fashion companies, including 
fast-fashion leaders like Zara and H&M; $9 billion in aerospace; and 
even $623 million in coal. The Transition is looking good.

Another promising sector is arms dealers, even though initially, bankers 
were hesitant to invest in a sector so far removed from "sustainable." 
But this doesn't take into account the aggressive lobbying of the arms 
industry and also the completely changing international context in 
Europe with Russia's attack on Ukraine starting in February 2022. The 
European Commission is preparing for war. In its strategy presentation 
document, dated November 2024, the technocrats declare: "The defense 
industry[...]makes an essential contribution to the resilience and 
security of the Union, and therefore to peace and social sustainability. 
In this context, the EU's sustainable financing framework is fully 
consistent with the Union's efforts to facilitate access to financing 
for the European defense industry." QED. The bankers quickly get the 
message and open the floodgates to arms manufacturers.

The figures speak for themselves: since 2022, green funds' investments 
in the arms industry have more than tripled, reaching EUR49.8 billion by 
the end of June 2025. And this is paying off, as in 2025, 800 funds made 
EUR7 billion in profits. Quite a bargain! Among the biggest investors 
are the well-known US investment fund BlackRock (EUR3 billion), followed 
by the German firm DWS (EUR2.4 billion) and the American Capital Group 
(EUR1.8 billion). Crédit Agricole is in fourth place (EUR1.7 billion), 
and other French banks also involved include Eleva Capital, Crédit 
Mutuel, and the BPCE group, which includes Banque Populaire and Caisse 
d'Épargne.

These "green" investments benefited 104 companies linked to the arms 
industry - including the European leaders (see graph) - primarily the 
French company Safran (EUR5.6 billion), which manufactures drones and 
"precision" bombs, but also other major groups like Rolls-Royce, 
Rheinmetall, and Airbus, which are known for being very low CO2 emitters 
(sic). As for the socially responsible aspect, one should ask the Gazans 
who have been hit by bombs fired from the M109 howitzer, partly 
manufactured by the German company Rheinmetall, while Rolls-Royce 
supplies components for Israeli tanks. Finally, 25 green funds directly 
invested EUR23 million in the defense company Elbit Systems, a key cog 
in the Israeli military-industrial complex responsible for the genocide 
of the Palestinians.

Margat, January 2026

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4630
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