Multinational investment bank HSBC is withdrawing its support from a US$2-billion, 1,980-megawatt coal plant in southeastern Vietnam.
The bank was appointed as financial advisor to the Vinh Tan 3 project in 2014, but announced this week that it was stepping away from the assignment, Singapore-based Eco-Business reports, in a dispatch republished by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
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“Vinh Tan 3 is a planned part of a huge coal power complex in the Vinh Tan, Bình Thuan province of Vietnam, which is projected to produce 12 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, and generate 11 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year,” Eco-Business writes. The news report links HSBC’s decision to an opinion piece by Market Forces, a divestment group connected to Friends of the Earth Australia, accusing the bank of being a laggard in the effort to clean up financing for energy production in Asia.
And HSBC is just the latest bank to unfriend coal in the region.
“Standard Chartered Bank, a major British rival of HSBC’s with a significant presence in Asia, announced in December that it had quit funding deals for a number of coal plants in Southeast Asia, which Eco-Business understands to be Vinh Tan 3, as well as Vung Ang 2 in Vietnam and Java 9 and 10 in Indonesia,” the news report states. “StanChart’s announcement came six months after all three of Singapore’s and Southeast Asia’s largest banks said they would end funding for new coal development.”
