"World Bank and International Investors Bankrolling Climate Disaster in the Philippines," 18 April 2018

International investors have...poured billions of dollars into coal-fired power plants in the Philippines, one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change. The World Bank Group, commercial banks and asset managers have quietly bankrolled a coal boom on the island nation despite many of them pledging to end or cut their funding for fossil fuels, according to a report released today by Inclusive Development International, Bank Information Center Europe and the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice.

The report, “Broken Promises: The World Bank, International Investors and the Fight for Climate Justice in the Philippines,” details how investors have helped prop up coal in the Philippines despite strong public opposition and local market conditions that favor clean energy. International investors face enormous financial risk, with experts predicting some $21 billion in stranded coal assets in the Philippines in the coming years.

The boom in new carbon-polluting coal plants in the Philippines threatens to derail international efforts to limit global temperature rise to below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels...In addition to making the Philippines even more vulnerable to climate change, the coal projects havecaused forced displacement and dangerous air and water pollution, among other impacts. Environmental defenders opposing the projects have been threatened, harassed and even murdered...