European banks pour nearly €8 billion a year into critical minerals mining despite links to human rights and environmental abuses

Meanwhile, the EU rolls back and weakens its sustainability and green rules

New Oxfam, Fair Finance International and 11.11.11. report exposes how Europe’s banks and investors are blindly investing in mining companies linked to land grabs, pollution and human rights violations. This comes ahead of the EU’s Raw Materials Week.  

The report, “Financing Critical Minerals but Failing Critical Safeguards”, finds that Europe’s drive to secure critical raw materials needed for the green transition inadvertently fuels human rights abuses and environmental harm. It highlights the financial and reputational risks for banks and investors, while exposing the hidden impact of the EU’s green agenda and the reality of the EU dismantling its sustainability rules.   

Between 2016 and 2024, EU banks provided €64 billion in loans and underwriting services to mining companies extracting critical raw materials, including lithium, copper, nickel and cobalt; all essential for Europe’s clean energy future. EU investors hold €15 billion in bonds and shares in mining companies.  

The report analyses the eight largest EU banks and investors on their environmental and human rights safeguards, including BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale, ING, and Banco Santander, giving scores ranging from just 2.6 to 4.0 out of 10.  

The ‘top’ performer, Dutch pension fund ABP, was awarded a modest 4. Meanwhile, Crédit Agricole (EU’s largest investor in mining companies), Allianz (the second largest) and Spanish Bank BBVA all scored below 3. 

“The rush for critical minerals is often seen as the building blocks for green energy, but their supply chains are rife with pollution and social conflict. This is not about a few bad apples, but rather a system that allows Europe’s financiers off the hook as the rules are too weak. Not only does this result in human rights and environmental abuses, this also exposes European banks and investors to financial and reputational risks,” says Kees Kodde, Oxfam and Fair Finance International Project Lead.  

The report traces European banks and investors linked to four mining operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Brazil and Peru, each tied to environmental or human rights abuses. 
 

• In the DRC, Allianz, BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole have invested millions in the mining companies that own the vast Kamoa-Kakula copper and cobalt mine. This is despite reports of land grabs, polluted water and resettlement sites without clean water and with unfarmable land. In 2025, a peaceful protest by villagers was met with mass arbitrary arrests and violence, including the shooting of two protestors.   
   

• In Peru, Allianz, Deutsche Bank and ING finance Glencore, the company operating the Antapaccay copper mine. Residents living nearby report respiratory problems and livestock deaths. Research by Peru’s state environmental agency, confirms that the mine pollutes air and waterways with toxic metals. Glencore’s planned expansion has been marked by secrecy and individual deals that undermine communities living in the area.  
   

• In Mozambique, European investors fund the Balama mine, which supplies graphite for EV batteries used for charging electric cars. Communities in the area report they have had to leave their homes and farms without fair compensation. They also report contamination of water sources.  
   

• In Brazil, BNP Paribas owns shares in Sigma Lithium which markets itself as a green lithium pioneer. Yet residents report that the company diverted their only source of water without consent and instructed them to stop using the water without any explanation. Dust pollution from mine explosions has also seen an increase in reports of respiratory diseases and heavy blasting has led to cracks in the walls of houses with residents fearing their homes may collapse. 
   

“Communities in the Peruvian Andes are being dispossessed of their land, suffering from health problems, and seeing their rights violated as mining projects financed by European banks and investors expand. These institutions are investing money in companies that have failed to deliver on their promises, pollute the water, and disregard the human rights of Indigenous peoples," said Yovana Mamani of CooperAcción.  

The report’s findings come as Europe is investing more to secure critical raw materials to support the green transition while simultaneously rolling back on its sustainability rules, such as the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence, through the Omnibus proposals. 

“Europe’s clean energy transition is being financed at the expense of its sustainability track record, and the EU is also weakening the very safeguards meant to prevent this. Ignoring human rights is not just unjust, it is also bad business. Social unrest can shut down mines, disrupt supply and make Europe’s energy transition more expensive. The green transition requires responsible financing, not blind investment”, said Femmy Thewissen of 11.11.11.