BNP Paribas has passed a significant milestone in its energy financing strategy, with more than 80% of its energy production financing now directed toward low-carbon energies.

The increase marks a notable acceleration compared with previous periods. Low-carbon energy financing accounted for approximately 65% of BNP Paribas’ energy production exposure in 2023, rising to around 76% in 2024, before surpassing the 80% threshold in 2025. The category includes renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and hydropower, as well as nuclear energy, which the bank classifies as low-carbon.

At the same time, BNP Paribas has continued to reduce its exposure to fossil fuel energy production. Credit exposure linked to oil and gas projects has declined as financing volumes for renewables and other low-carbon technologies increased, reflecting the bank’s longer-term commitment to rebalancing its energy portfolio in line with climate objectives.
Beyond energy production financing, the bank has also reported progress against its broader transition finance ambitions. By the end of 2025, BNP Paribas had mobilized more than €250 billion in financing supporting the low-carbon transition, exceeding its initial €200 billion target ahead of schedule. The bank has since confirmed updated objectives, including a target to reach 90% low-carbon energy financing by 2030.

While the figures relate specifically to energy production financing exposure, rather than BNP Paribas’ total lending activity, they nonetheless highlight the pace at which large financial institutions are reshaping their energy strategies. As regulatory scrutiny, investor expectations, and transition risks continue to intensify, the composition of energy financing portfolios is increasingly viewed as a key indicator of alignment with long-term climate goals.

Mining projects around the world often promise development and economic growth, yet their legacies reveal a far more complicated story. Sites like Cerrejón in Colombia, Córrego do Feijão and Samarco in Brazil show how environmental, social, and human rights risks can ripple through communities for decades. Rivers are poisoned, soils contaminated, and ecosystems devastated, while thousands of residents face health crises, displacement, and loss of livelihoods. Legal actions, class lawsuits, and ongoing remediation efforts illustrate that the consequences of these operations do not end when production stops. Communities continue to grapple with the aftermath, from toxic waste and tailings spills to the psychological scars of displacement and conflict.

What are the most pressing ESG challenges currently facing the mining sector? Read on to find out.

Córrego do Feijão Mine: ESG Challenges and Ongoing Controversies

The Córrego do Feijão Mine is facing serious ESG controversies following a dam collapse that resulted in 270 fatalities and contamination of the Paraopeba River. Indigenous villagers still lack safe land and access to clean water and food. The operating company, Vale, is dealing with ongoing legal challenges, including fines and criminal charges for negligence and bribery. Environmental and social impacts persist, with continued monitoring of water quality and safety risks from existing dams. Governance issues remain significant, highlighted by employee arrests and scrutiny over manipulated audits, prompting calls from local and international NGOs for improved remediation efforts and oversight of the mine’s operations.

Key Controversies:

• Prosecutors Appeal Supreme Court Over Córrego do Feijão Mine Dam Collapse
• Unsafe Dam at Córrego do Feijão Mine Kills 270 as Operator Is Convicted of Homicide and Bribery
• Vale Fined US$17 Million for Brumadinho Tailings Dam Disaster at Córrego do Feijão Mine
• Indigenous Communities Still Lack Safe Land, Clean Water, And Food, Following The Córrego Do Feijão Mine Dam Collapse
  

Cerrejon Mine: Human Rights, Health, and Environmental Impacts

Cerrejón Mine faces significant ESG issues, particularly in environmental and social areas. Its expansion has displaced over 20,000 indigenous people, especially from the Wayúu community, leading to severe health problems and the deaths of 5,000 children. Environmental concerns include the diversion of the Bruno Stream, excessive water use during droughts, and significant air and water pollution. Labor unrest persists, with over 4,600 unionized workers striking over job cuts and unsafe conditions. The mine continues to face international criticism for violating local community rights and harming regional ecosystems.

Key Controversies:

• Cerrejón Coal Mine Expansion Sparks Protests Over Air Pollution and Water Diversion Affecting Indigenous Communities
• Cerrejón Coal Mine Poses Serious Threats to Indigenous Wayúu Community’s Health, Water, and Livelihoods
• Ecocide and Child Deaths Ravage Wayúu Community at El Cerrejón
• Cerrejón Mine Workers Strike Against Job Cuts, Dangerous Shifts, and Benefit Reductions

Samarco Mine: Escalating ESG Challenges and Corporate Accountability

Samarco Mine faces intense ESG scrutiny nearly a decade after the 2015 Fundão dam collapse, with over 700,000 claimants in a $44 billion lawsuit for contaminated water and pollution. The operator risks bankruptcy due to environmental liabilities and failed debt restructuring, exacerbating financial instability. Ongoing issues include heavy metal contamination in wildlife and dust pollution exceeding health standards, prompting NGOs to demand the operator's removal from the UN Global Compact. Governance concerns have risen with employee arrests linked to safety protocol violations and falsified audits, raising questions about corporate accountability.

Key Controversies:

• Samarco Mine Disaster Lawsuit Escalates to $44 Billion with Over 700,000 Claimants
• Samarco Mine’s Operator Faced Bankruptcy Risk Due to Environmental Liabilities, Compensation Claims, and Operational Shutdowns
• NGOs Urge Removal of Samarco Mine Operator from UN Pact Over Dam Disaster
• Samarco Mine Faces New Legal Actions and Investigations Over Contaminated Water Crisis

Conclusion

The ongoing ESG challenges in the mining sector highlight significant environmental, social, and governance failures that profoundly impact affected communities. The cases of Córrego do Feijão, Cerrejón, and Samarco reveal the dire consequences of prioritizing profit over sustainability. Mining companies must embrace accountability, transparency, and community engagement to rebuild trust and ensure a positive impact.

Reach out to SESAMm

TextReveal’s web data analysis of over five million public and private companies is essential for keeping tabs on ESG investment risks. To learn more about how you can analyze web data or to request a demo, reach out to one of our representatives.

Sylvain Forté, CEO and co-founder of SESAMm, presented the following at Finovate 2022. In the presentation, Sylvain explains who SESAMm is, what SESAMm does, including examples, and how it benefits our financial clients.

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. Watch the video for a better view of graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which the presenter might be referring to in context.

Hi, everyone. Thank you very much for the opportunity to be with you today. I’m very glad to introduce you to SESAMm. I’m Sylvain, CEO and co-founder of SESAMm.

We’re an artificial intelligence company specializing in analytics for investment professionals and [corporations]. We basically extract billions of articles and messages from the web and transform them into actionable insights to make better decisions. We’re a team of close to 100 people now, and we generate insights from more than 20 billion articles and messages.

Immediate access to daily insights

Let me jump straight to the demo and give you a practical example of what we do. So imagine you’re, for example, a bank looking to compute environmental, social, and governance risks on your portfolio on your clients or on your suppliers. Right now, you may have access to ratings, which are updated once per quarter or once per year. We can give you access immediately to timely daily data on all of your companies in order for you to better assess risks and raise early warnings.

Wirecard use case

In this specific example (Figure 1), we look at Wirecard, a company that went bankrupt due to a 2 billion fraud scandal in Germany.

We extracted dozens of thousands of articles and messages on the company, and we can immediately see that there is a huge anomaly in terms of governance risk. The company is basically exposed to fraud accusations, to lawsuits, and the like, things that you don’t really want to see in your clients or your own portfolio.

Furthermore, we can see on this chart that we can get that type of indicator every single day. And we can see that six months prior to the company’s bankruptcy, there were already huge alerts actually here in January 2020, indicating that the company was in a pretty bad situation from the perspective of web content and web data from news to social platforms, blogs, and forums.

We really have the ability to compute live insights for ESG risk, sustainability monitoring, credit, and similar topics. The advantage of the platform is that we can go very deep. You can see here (Figure 2) some of the underlying governance topics associated with Wirecard, such as fraud, embezzlement, and crime—the main accusation—but also things related to anti-competitive practices or corruption.

And furthermore, the platform enables full transparency. This is AI at scale, but the underlying content is actually text articles and messages that you can read in order to understand the situation and see why the company is in that risk position. So with our platform, with our text analysis engine (TextReveal®), you can immediately extract content on your portfolio, your clients, your suppliers, and for example, generate ESG insights, competitive insights, sentiment insights, or credit warnings, for example.

Trusted, reliable, and abundant insights

We are today trusted by major financial institutions, such as Nomura [Holdings] or Raiffeisen Bank in the banking sector, for example, or large private equity firms worldwide. The reason why they trust us is that we can provide data more quickly—so waiting one day instead of waiting three months—to get an indicator. In addition to that, we have better coverage. We’re the only company in the world that can provide information on five million different public and private companies, meaning all of your banking clients, for example, are covered. And finally, we have access to a large variety of sources, from social content to news and blogs.

Insights beyond companies

Another example that is very common—sadly right now—is clients asking us to follow the Ukraine Russia War and to understand the current situation, including by getting access to local content in local languages in Ukrainian, in Polish, in Russian, to really understand the news and social media out there.

You can see here that beyond companies, we actually track sectors, infrastructure projects, and concepts.

Here (Figure 3), Nord Stream, for example, in the context of Ukraine specifically—so as to understand how these two topics are associated on the web—we can see an explosion in terms of volumes of data over time, the news associating this concept more and more, with more than 40,000 pieces of content. And we can see that sentiment over time, as displayed on this curve (Figure 4), decreases very rapidly, so we see the shock on e-reputation, and we can observe that immediately. And, for example, as a bank or as an asset manager, we can use that to assess the potential risk to clients or portfolio companies.

The interesting thing here is that, beyond the graphs and the raw contents, we can look at where the information comes from. Here (Figure 5), you see a lot of information in German, for example, which is not surprising. And you can even follow the Russian propaganda directly from the platform, looking at Russia Today or Sputnik straight from the engine, as these are also sources that we monitor.

And as you can see, these contents are highly customizable and can be used in very specific situations. So this is really a platform as a service (PaaS) that we offer. This is an engine that tracks four million different sources of information, and we can track millions of companies but also even fuzzy concepts, countries, or topics of interest.

Generate analytics from big data with API

One last thought. A lot of our clients integrate with our API; it’s a technical solution. We work a lot with data science teams, data engineering teams, risk teams, quantitative analysts, and heads of innovation. All of these teams are looking to generate analytics from big data and from web content at scale, with solutions that are currently used by dozens of clients worldwide and for which we provide very relevant analytics.

I’ll leave you with three final calls to action.

1. The first one is come see us at our booth. We would be very happy to present the solution in a bit more detail.
2. The second is, please request a demo. You understand that these indicators can be tailored to your needs in real time. So we’ll be very happy to show you a demo at SESAMm.com.
3. And finally, come see us for a free proof-of-concept (POC). We would be very happy to show you how we incorporate these solutions in actual banking tools and in risk management tools.

So the web is now readily available as a system that you can use and that you can rely on in order to generate valuable insights. We’re very happy to provide the solution to the market and to help inform better decisions and to help monitor risks.

Thank you very much.