At least 100 major lenders have put restrictions in the past five years on mines that produce coal and power plants that burn it, according to a February report from the Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis. Their decisions reflect the rising recognition of coal’s role in climate change, and the potential for the fuel and facilities that rely on it to become obsolete before investments in them are paid off.
(Apr 17): Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., Southeast Asia’s second-largest lender, said two Vietnamese coal-fired power plants will be the last it finances as it increases funding for renewable projects.
“We won’t do any new coal-fired power generation plants in any countries, except for the power projects that we are already in, or we have committed to,” Chief Executive Officer Samuel Tsien said in an interview at its Singapore headquarters Monday. “We hope that by doing this, we are encouraging the governments to do facilitating, arrangements for the countries to move from coal to renewable.”
