DBS plans to stop financing coal power after 2021

SINGAPORE (Bloomberg): Singapore’s largest bank plans to stop financing coal-fired power plants once its existing commitments are complete in 2021.

DBS Group Holdings Ltd will stop financing new projects in any market regardless of the efficiency of the technologies used, it said in a statement on its website.

It declined to comment on how large its existing coal power plant pipeline is, and said the last of its existing commitments is likely to be completed by 2021.

The bank has been linked to at least two projects in Vietnam, Van Phong 1 and Nghi Son 2, by media reports and climate activists.

The bank joins a long list of lenders that have put restrictions in recent years on lending to operations that mine or burn coal, including its Singaporean rival Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, which announced its plan to halt financing coal power plants earlier this week. OCBC also will loan to already-planned projects before discontinuing such funding.

DBS mandated or closed 17 renewable energy deals in 2018 with an estimated loan size of more than S$1.3bil, and will continue to pursue such projects, the bank said in its statement.