BANKING ON COAL IN SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA

The report identifies a significant pipeline of planned coal capacity in South and Southeast Asia, primarily driven by a small group of parent companies and funded by a concentrated network of Asian and international banks. It argues that existing bank policies are largely superficial, focusing on project-level restrictions while allowing corporate finance to continue flowing to coal developers.

• In a subset of seven countries in South and Southeast Asia—India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos, and the Philippines—approximately 216 GW of new coal capacity is planned, which is more than one-third of the global planned pipeline.
• Coal expansion in the analyzed region is highly concentrated, with 92 parent companies accounting for approximately 99% of planned expansion. The top four companies—CHN Energy, ChinaCoal, NTPC, and Adani—account for nearly 47% of the total pipeline.
• Between 2021 and 2024, the top 100 banks funding coal expansion in South and Southeast Asia provided US$49.5 billion to 49 of the 92 analyzed parent companies, representing 98% of the total identified financing of US$50.6 billion.
• Asian banks are the primary financiers of the region's coal expansion, with Chinese banks providing US$21.6 billion, followed by Indian banks (US$8 billion), Japanese banks (US$7.8 billion), and Indonesian banks (US$4 billion) between 2021 and 2024.
• Corporate finance is the dominant funding mechanism, accounting for approximately 95% of total financing for coal expansion in South and Southeast Asia from 2021 to 2024, while project finance represents only 3%.
• Bond issuances are the most used instrument for raising capital, accounting for nearly 60% of total funding for coal plant developers in the region between 2021 and 2024.
• Bank coal policies are generally insufficient; only 51% of the top 100 banks have a publicly available coal policy, and none of the world's 100 largest banks have a fully comprehensive, robust coal policy.
• There is a significant gap in corporate-level restrictions, as only 18% of banks include corporate finance to new coal plant developers in their exclusion policies.
• Regional policy gaps are stark: 0% of Indian banks in the sample have an explicit coal policy, and while 75% of Philippine banks have one, 0% apply restrictions at the corporate level.
• Common loopholes in global bank policies allow continued financing, such as excluding only new clients while servicing existing ones (e.g., Citi) or exempting captive coal plants (e.g., Standard Chartered).

APA

Martinez, A. H., Miomandre, L., & Sebrecht, P.-A. (2025). BANKING ON COAL IN SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA. Reclaim Finance. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Banking-on-coal-in-south-and-southeast-asia-the-network-behind-a-dirty-industry.pdf

Chicago

Martinez, Anne Hamon, Léa Miomandre, and Pierre-Alain Sebrecht. BANKING ON COAL IN SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA. Reclaim Finance, 2025. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Banking-on-coal-in-south-and-southeast-asia-the-network-behind-a-dirty-industry.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Martinez |first1=Anne Hamon |last2=Miomandre |first2=Léa |last3=Sebrecht |first3=Pierre-Alain |title=BANKING ON COAL IN SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA |publisher=Reclaim Finance |date=December 2025 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Banking-on-coal-in-south-and-southeast-asia-the-network-behind-a-dirty-industry.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{martinez2025banking, author = {Martinez, Anne Hamon and Miomandre, Léa and Sebrecht, Pierre-Alain}, title = {{BANKING ON COAL IN SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA}}, institution = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2025}, month = dec, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Banking-on-coal-in-south-and-southeast-asia-the-network-behind-a-dirty-industry.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }