Financing closed on the US$1.87 billion, 1,200 megawatt Nghi Son 2 coal-fired power plant last week. But London-headquartered Standard Chartered Bank—which was initially part of a consortium of nine banks that includes Singapore’s Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) and DBS, Malaysia’s Maybank and Japan Bank for International Cooperation—was absent from the final list of financiers.

A campaign by green groups Greenpeace and Market Forces pointed out that by financing the coal plant, StanChart was in breach of its own policy on energy and climate change. That policy rules out providing loans for coal plants above a certain emissions intensity.

The coal financing deal also goes against the Equator Principles, a framework for banks to assess the environmental and social risk of the infrastructure projects they finance, that StanChart signed in 2003.

Vietnam is well-placed for clean energy investment, but Singapore’s major banks continue to miss opportunities to fund a clean energy development pathway, instead locking in polluting coal for decades to come.

Julien Vincent, executive director, Market Forces

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