FFDS Report 2025: PH banks pulled brakes on coal, gas financing in 2024
For the first time since the Paris Agreement, no new financing was recorded for domestic Philippine banks throughout 2024 – a positive development that advocates say is telling of the increasing viability of renewable energy in the country.
The Fossil Fuel Divestment Scorecard is a tool published annually by think-tank Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED) to assist Philippine banks and their stakeholders in evaluating how they and their peers are faring in assisting the Philippines’ energy transition. CEED is a convenor of Withdraw from Coal: End Fossil Fuels (WFC:EFF), a watchdog network on fossil fuel and renewable energy financing launched in 2019.
“This year began with a stark warning of how gravely insufficient climate action has been in the last decade – especially on action necessary to end global dependence on fossil fuels: 2024 is the first full calendar year recorded of temperature rise beyond 1.5°C. If nothing changes, it may well be the mark of the feared long-term breach, and of even more severe and widespread climate impacts than previously anticipated. But this year’s Fossil Fuel Divestment Scorecard offers a glimpse of hope, with no new financing for coal or gas recorded among domestic commercial banks in 2024,” said Bishop Gerry Alminaza, lead Convenor of WFC:EFF.
“This lack of deals likely reflects the banks’ aversion to the increasing risks of the fossil fuel industry. Dragging power supply agreement approval, uncertainties and shifting pronouncements from generation companies on the fuel to be used for plants, fluctuating prices of coal and gas in the global market, as well as the palpable pressure from communities affected by the pollution from the industry and aggravating climate crisis, all contribute to the riskiness of the industry,” the report read.
Meanwhile, renewable energy financing doubled in size in the last four years alone since the Renewable Energy Law was enacted in 2009.
For CEED Executive Director Gerry Arances, however, “We should take this turning point with a grain of salt. The historical dominance of fossil fuel financing remains prevalent, driven by laws like the country’s Natural Gas Industry Development Act, passed this January 2025, which poses significant risks. Loopholes in current and neww bank divestment policies also allow for renewed investments in harmful and destructive energy sources.”
In particular, CEED and WFC:EFF are alarmed that with a new deal entered by some of the country’s biggest banks to back fossil gas expansion just at the start of the year.
“I would like to hope that this state of affairs is a mark that our domestic banks are now all the more embracing their crucial role in pushing back against worse climate chaos. Unfortunately, we recently saw news break out of three major commercial banks – BPI, BDO, and Metrobank – starting 2025 wrong by financing the joint venture of San Miguel Corporation, Aboitiz Power, and Meralco’s MGen for three gas facilities along the biodiverse Verde Island Passage. It is clear that much is left to be done for Philippine banks to truly end their contributions to harming our climate, people, and environment with fossil fuel finance,” said Bishop Alminaza.
“The path forward is clear: our financial institutions must stop all new fossil fuel financing and accelerate their commitment to renewable energy for a clean, just, and people-centered development future for all Filipinos,” Arances said.