The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) stands as the Philippine bank with the strongest commitment to help the country transition to more sustainable energy resources.
BPI is the first domestic bank to give a time-bound commitment to halve outstanding coal generation financing in its portfolio by 2026 and bring it down to zero by 2032.
A report by the Withdraw from Coal (WFC) Campaign claiming that BPI is atop a list of ‘dirty’ Philippine banks because of its fossil fuel financing is totally flawed.
BPI has no commitment to lend to Atimonan One Energy’s (A1E) coal plant project.
In fact, the report notes that BPI executives have told WFC that loan agreements for coal projects without approved Power Supply Agreements (PSAs) such as the A1E project are not pushing through.
Yet, WFC ascribed BPI a high coal exposure score largely due to coal projects the Bank has no commitments to finance.
Meanwhile, BPI is on track with its coal commitment. Given the reduction in its coal portfolio as of December 2022, the Bank expects to meet its target to cut coal power exposure by 50% by 2026. It also remains on track to achieve its target to zero out its coal portfolio by 2032.
As of year-end 2022, BPI’s outstanding renewable energy financing comprises 51% of the Bank’s total power generation mix, significantly higher vs the Philippines’ total share for renewables at 24% in the country’s energy mix.
