"World Bank fueling climate change, groups allege in historic complaint", 24 October 2017

More than 100 citizen groups and 19 affected communities…filed a historic complaint against the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private-sector arm, accusing the IFC of fueling global climate change through its investments in a Philippine bank….

The complaint accuses the IFC of supporting 19 new or expanded coal-fired power plants in the Philippines through its investments in Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC).

After receiving $253 million in IFC funding and the World Bank’s stamp of approval, RCBC went on to provide and arrange billions of dollars in financing for the power plants and the companies developing them, in violation of the IFC’s social and environmental Performance Standards and climate commitments.

The complainants are calling on the IFC to use its leverage to stop the coal projects that have not yet commenced operation, and to ensure that its financial intermediaries in the Philippines and around the world stop financing coal projects and instead fund renewable energy solutions.

…Aaron Pedrosa of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice…presented the complaint to the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman and the leaders of World Bank Group in Washington, DC.

The IFC is indirectly funding coal in the Philippines despite a 2013 World Bank pledge to get out of the industry for good, except in extraordinary circumstances.