BPI aims to halve its coal project financing in 5 years

BANK of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has expressed its intent to move away from coal-fired power project financing as part of its overall environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda going forward.

In their Annual Stockholders Meeting (ASM) on Thursday, outgoing BPI president and chief executive officer (CEO) Cezar Consing said: “Certainly there has been a lot of talk about green lending and lending to coal and that is one of the things that we need to tackle.

“We hope to bring down our exposure to coal by half by 2026. We’re clearly aligned with the Paris accord to do zero coal exposure by 2037 but that, to me, is so far away and I think we have got to do it sooner.”

Earlier this week, civil society and church-led campaign Withdraw from Coal (WFC) released its Coal Divestment Scorecard, listing BPI as the bank with the highest exposure to coal.

According to WFC’S report, BPI is responsible for 27 percent of all coal lending across 15 local banks. The coalition also said BPI has funded at least 15 coal plant projects and six coal developer companies.

In a statement following BPI’S announcement to cut its coal exposure, WFC welcomed BPI’S commitment but said a lot of work still has to be done.

“Reducing its coal loans by half in the next five years is a good start, but that goal is still underwhelming given that BPI is responsible for 27 percent of all coal lending across 15 local banks. We’d also like to remind BPI that it has to rectify its being the coal industry’s top underwriter,” WFC Convenor Gerry Arances said.

“With its coal bonds, BPI is allowing itself to profit off coal without adding to their outstanding loans. Our future is looking catastrophic amid this worsening climate crisis, and so there simply is no excuse to tolerate any form of financial support to coal,” Arances added.

WFC also called on other banks to also make similar moves to cut coal-power project financing.

“Regardless of the questions still lingering on BPI’S new coal commitment, it is a welcome development that should definitely be mirrored by BDO and PNB as they report to their respective stakeholders,” WFC Convenor Bishop Gerry Alminaza of the Diocese of San Carlos said.