Two weeks ago we revealed banking group BNP Paribas, the world’s leading investor in the nuclear industry, is planning to fund an obsolete, dangerous nuclear reactor in Brazil – Angra 3. Since then a lot of you have asked BNP Paribas to stop its radioactive investments, some by sending an e-mail and others by phoning. So far the bank has not responded adequately to your concerns.
Luckily BNP Paribas likes to remain in contact with its customers, as well as its potential customers: the general public, so it maintains a Facebook page where a moderator regularly responds to questions in a very friendly manner (often with the added touch of a :) !) This is a Facebook page for BNP Paribas to promote its new projects or latest offers to the public, such as its sponsoring of the Masters tennis tournament – but I noticed that one of its latest projects is missing: the Angra 3 nuclear reactor.
This reactor fails to meet international safety standards, in addition its outdated, decades old technology would never be permitted in France itself. It is a dangerous nuclear project that should not go ahead – yet BNP Paribas wants to finance it. This money would come partially from customers’ savings – which make up 45% of the banking group’s global revenue.
BNP Paribas does not share information about its involvement with the Angra 3 nuclear reactor with its customers or with the general public. It certainly doesn’t mention this on its Facebook page. But it should.
You can leave a comment asking BNP Paribas why it is going ahead with plans to finance the dangerous, out-of-date Angra 3 reactor – and why it doesn’t share its involvement in these kinds of projects on its Facebook page?
[If BNP Paribas promoted the Angra 3 reactor as one of its latest projects or 'Bon plans' - its Facebook page might look a little more like this:]
When you visit the page you might notice that BNP Paribas has some rules for its Facebook fans, such as:
“Par ailleurs, afin de garantir la qualité des contributions, nous vous invitons à:
- Ne pas abuser des majuscules et de la ponctuation
- Eviter le langage « SMS »
- Eviter l'emploi de langues étrangères
- Citer vos sources”
Translation:
In addition, in order to guarantee the quality of contributions, we invite you to:
-not use excessive capitalization or punctuation
-not use ‘SMS’ language
-not use foreign languages
-cite your sources
It’s a bit strange that an international banking group like BNP Paribas – which is happy to bank in many different languages – is not encouraging the public to leave Facebook comments in different languages as well. But we don’t mind asking them to stop funding the dangerous Angra 3 reactor in French or in any other language for that matter. If you don’t mind either, then here is the question in French:
Pourquoi la BNP continue-t-elle a financer le réacteur nucléaire d'Angra au Brésil, alors qu'il s'agit d'un projet dangereux et d'une technologie depassée?
J'ai remarqué que la BNP aime partager des infos sur sa participation aux tournois de tennis. Pourquoi ne parlez-vous pas aussi de la participation de la BNP a la construction d'un réacteur nucléaire dépassé au Brésil?
If BNP Paribas asks you to cite your sources – please refer them to greenpeace.org/stopnuclearbanks. There they can find plenty of information on the dangers of the Angra 3 nuclear reactor project. BNP Paribas should publically announce plans to cancel its involvement in financing this nuclear reactor immediately - we look forward to seeing that news shared on the BNP Paribas Facebook page soon.