PHL banks give ‘dirty’ energy $1.8B

Anumber of Philippine banks have provided nearly $1.8 billion in financial assistance to coal and gas-fired power projects, the latest report of energy advocacy and bank watchdog group Withdraw from Coal: end Fossil Fuels (WFCECC) revealed.

The banks identified in the report are Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), BDO Unibank Inc. (BDO), Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank), Security Bank Corp. (SBC), Philippine National Bank (PNB) and China Banking Corp. (PSE: CHIB).

The report said that as of March, the total amount financed by Philippine banks for coal-related activities and projects reached $867.08 million for April 2022 to March 2023, with the majority through bonds underwriting of around $594 million while the rest are from loans.

Meanwhile, financing for the expansion of new fossil gas projects registered $930 million for this scorecard period, the report, which was released on Tuesday, stated.

The 2023 scorecard took into account, for the first time, the exposure of domestic banks to the fossil gas industry.

“The new criteria greatly affected BPI, the top coal financier, which has now doubled its dirty-energy exposure while BDO emerged as the top fossil gas financier,” WFC-ECC said.

The group noted that financing for fossil-fuel power projects have shifted from loans to bonds from 2020 up to the first quarter of 2023. Center for Energy, Ecology and Development (CEED) Deputy Executive Director Avril de Torres said “banks must realize that every time they underwrite or facilitate a toxic bond, they have a direct hand in the worsening impacts of the climate crisis.”

WFC-EFF Convener and San Carlos Bishop Gerry A. Alminaza said the need to phase out all fossil fuels has become even starker after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest report, which reveals that “the window of time we still have to keep alive the 1.5-degree-celsius Paris goal and the chance of generations to come to fight for a livable future is rapidly closing by the second.”

With no time left to waste, Alminaza urged banks “to abandon fossil gas and coal plans, develop and fully implement policies and mechanisms to reach climate ambitions, and intensify their renewable energy investments.”

The Communications and Partnerships and National Ecology office of Caritas Philippines commented that it is never too late for the banks to stop financing power projects that will utilize fossil fuels.

“The scorecard is a reflection of the financial environment in which fossil fuels thrive. Philippine banks can expect that they will continue to take the brunt of the growing global campaign pressuring banks to end their massive and ongoing financing of fossil fuels,” said Jing Henderson of Caritas Philippines.