10 Essentials for a ‘Truly Green’ Green Equity Approach

This report by Recourse and Trend Asia evaluates the International Finance Corporation's (IFC) 'Approach to Greening Equity in Financial Institutions' (GEA). While acknowledging the GEA's goal to phase out coal-related investments by 2030, the authors argue that the current framework contains loopholes that allow continued fossil fuel financing and fails to align with the Paris Agreement. The report proposes ten essential reforms to make the GEA 'truly green,' focusing on the total exclusion of new fossil fuel projects, increased transparency, gender equality, and the remediation of past harms.

• The IFC's Green Equity Approach (GEA) aims to end equity investments in financial institutions (FIs) that lack a plan to phase out coal-related investments by 2030. While it has seen some success, such as India's Federal Bank Limited turning away from new coal investments in July 2021, the authors argue the GEA is too narrow to align the IFC's portfolio with the Paris Agreement.
• The GEA contains significant loopholes that allow IFC clients to continue supporting fossil fuels. For example, the GEA allows clients to support new coal investments as long as they phase out by 2030. Additionally, the definition of 'exposure' to coal excludes financial services like underwriting of bonds or share issues, which accounted for 65% of bank financing for fossil fuels in 2020.
• The adoption of the GEA among IFC clients has been very low. Out of nearly 70 commercial banks with active IFC equity investments, only three banks and two insurance companies have signed the agreement.
• The report highlights failures in monitoring and transparency, noting that Hana Indonesia bank financed the Java 9 and 10 coal plant complexes in Banten Province, Indonesia, after signing the GEA without the IFC's knowledge because clients are not required to reveal new coal financing.
• The IFC is urged to address past harms caused by its investments. The report cites a Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) finding that the IFC breached its own standards by allowing Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) to finance 10 coal plants in the Philippines, leading to environmental and community harm.
• To achieve 'true' green equity, the report recommends ten essentials: stopping all new coal support, ceasing finance for all new oil and gas projects, scaling up sustainable renewables, increasing GEA adoption, closing the underwriting loophole, prioritizing gender equality, addressing past harms, ensuring full public disclosure of project-specific data, conducting a public review of the GEA, and adopting a rights-based approach.

APA

Geary, K., & Pascual, M. M. (n.d.). 10 Essentials for a ‘Truly Green’ Green Equity Approach. Trend Asia. https://trendasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/10-Essentials-for-a-‘Truly-Green-Green-Equity-Approach.pdf

Chicago

Geary, Kate, and Mark Moreno Pascual. 10 Essentials for a ‘Truly Green’ Green Equity Approach. Trend Asia, n.d. https://trendasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/10-Essentials-for-a-‘Truly-Green-Green-Equity-Approach.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Geary |first1=Kate |last2=Pascual |first2=Mark Moreno |title=10 Essentials for a ‘Truly Green’ Green Equity Approach |publisher=Trend Asia |url=https://trendasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/10-Essentials-for-a-‘Truly-Green-Green-Equity-Approach.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gearyndessentials, author = {Geary, Kate and Pascual, Mark Moreno}, title = {{10 Essentials for a ‘Truly Green’ Green Equity Approach}}, institution = {Trend Asia}, url = {https://trendasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/10-Essentials-for-a-‘Truly-Green-Green-Equity-Approach.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }