Tokyo, Japan – Ahead of the Finance in Common Summit, Greenpeace Japan and Greenpeace East Asia call for China, Japan, and South Korea’s state-backed public development banks (PDBs) to apply national net-zero carbon pledges to overseas investments in an open letter to six bank managers. At the summit, the state bank managers from three countries have the chance to extend national climate commitments to the energy projects they finance overseas.
Greenpeace Japan Executive Director Sam Annesley and Greenpeace East Asia Executive Director Cheung Sze Pang urge East Asia’s PDBs to carry out the implications of net-zero pledges in overseas activities as well as domestically, to make a public policy to prohibit the support for coal-fired power plants, and to commit to financing the renewable energy transition in recipient countries, where public investment is skewed heavily toward fossil fuels.
In the co-signed letter, Annesley and Pang write:
“Anyone who follows climate efforts in Asia quickly learns about public finance, its political relevance, and the support that PDBs of China, Japan, and South Korea provide to new coal- and gas-fired power projects outside their own borders. On the environmental impact of public finance, the science is clear, voices in the recipient countries are loud, and international investors’ advice is increasingly insistent: these short-term investments in coal have to stop now or you will violate long-term commitments to climate objectives made by your governments.“
The Finance in Common Summit, held from November 9 to November 12 in Paris, France, is the first meeting of the world’s 400+ PDBs. This year, they will meet with an agenda to reconcile short-term and long-term investment impact, direct collaborative efforts to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and to set the stage for 2021’s COP26, COP15, and Generation Equality Forum.
PDBs are state-owned financial institutions that carry out government public policy objectives in economic development both nationally and internationally. Profit is not an explicit goal of PDBs, in contrast to state-owned commercial banks or insurance companies. As state entities, public development banks have the ability to offer unique support, such as guarantees and concessional loans, to enact policy agendas.
ENDS
Contacts:
August Rick, Communications Officer, Greenpeace East Asia, [email protected]
Mitsuhisa Kawase, Communications Officer, Greenpeace Japan, [email protected]
Greenpeace International Press Desk, [email protected], phone: +31 (0) 20 718 2470 (available 24 hours)
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