StanChart stops financing three SE Asian coal plants

SINGAPORE: Standard Chartered (StanChart) has pulled financing for three coal-fired power plants in Southeast Asia amid a global push to cut greenhouse gas emissions, throwing into doubt projects worth an estimated US$7 billion (RM29 billion) and piling pressure on the coal industry.

Banks and investors are facing pressure from environmental groups to stop funding power projects fired by the polluting fossil fuel, seen as a major risk to global plans to tackle climate change under the Paris Climate Agreement that demands a virtual end to coal power by 2050.

StanChart said in a statement on Tuesday it would pull out of three coal power ventures in Southeast Asia. The Asia-focused bank did not name the projects but industry sources said it referred to the Vung Ang 2 and Vinh Tan 3 plants in Vietnam, and Java 9 and 10 in Indonesia.

Hong Kong-based power investor CLP Holdings, a developer on both Vung Ang 2 and Vinh Tan 3, also said on Tuesday that it would no longer invest in new coal-fired power generation.

A subsidiary of Japan’s Mitsubishi is developing Vung Ang 2 and Vinh Tan 3. Singapore’s DBS is one of the lenders to Vung Ang 2 while HSBC and Chinese government-backed institutions are funding Vinh Tan 3.

Together the three projects jettisoned by StanChart were due to cost an estimated US$7.7 billion, according to Market Forces, an Australia-based environmental finance organisation. – Reuters