UK’s Standard Chartered assailed for financing Philippines coal boom

Mariveles Power Plant

Photo: The Mariveles Coal Power Plant, one of four financed by Standard Chartered. Photo: P199, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Key Points: Human rights and environmental advocates filed a formal complaint with the UK government this week accusing Standard Chartered bank of contributing to human rights violations and failing to provide remediation for harms […]

World Bank client backs out of EACOP after risk assessment

A DIRT ROAD IN THE MURCHISON FALLS NATIONAL PARK NEAR LAKE ALBERT. OIL DRILLING WILL BE HAPPENING NEAR THIS ROAD.

Britam Holdings, a leading East African insurance group and client of the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), has decided not to participate in underwriting the planned East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) after conducting a review of the environmental and social risks involved. This is a major blow to project developers, including TotalEnergies and […]

ANZ payment to displaced Cambodian families brings landmark human rights case to a close

(Phnom Penh) – Cambodian families who were forcibly displaced by Phnom Penh Sugar Company have received a promised payment from Australia’s ANZ bank, which financed the sugar company from 2011-2014.  Distribution of the funds, which ANZ agreed to pay in 2020, was complete as of this week, according to Inclusive Development International and Equitable Cambodia, two NGOs […]

ANZ launches human rights grievance mechanism in a first for the global banking sector

Joint statement by Inclusive Development International, Equitable Cambodia, BankTrack, Accountability Counsel and SOMO. Australia’s ANZ Bank today launched a Grievance Mechanism Framework to evaluate and respond to human rights related complaints associated with its corporate lending customers. This precedent-setting move makes ANZ the first large commercial bank in the world to adopt a human rights […]

No More Greenwashing: Principles Must Have Consequences

Inclusive Development International joins 21 civil society organizations in calling on signatories to the new Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) to commit to immediately end all financing for fossil fuel expansion and activities driving deforestation and human rights abuses. The joint statement calls for a 1.5°C compatible phase-out of financing for the fossil fuel industry […]

International call on banks: Don’t finance the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline

Uganda pipeline

A coalition of African and international organizations is today calling on South Africa’s Standard Bank and Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp (SMBC) to withdraw from their role as lead arrangers for a massive oil pipeline under construction in Uganda and Tanzania. The East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline is being developed as part of a push to open oil fields […]