The latest Fossil Fuel Divestment Scorecard is out! We find:
- That in 2025, the top 14 domestic banks funnelled the biggest financing for fossil fuels since 2009.
- Coal and gas reached new heights of financing in 2025. But, renewable energy financing was also record-breaking, quadrupling from 2024.
- Despite record financing, coal- and gas-related deals were not for new capacity. Coal financing was mainly to support existing plants, and gas financing was mostly for the equity acquisitions of power giants.
- Unlike coal and gas deals, most renewables financing is for building additional capacity, mainly solar power.
In a briefing unveiling the 2026 Fossil Fuel Divestment Scorecard, CEED and Withdraw from Coal: End Fossil Fuels on Tuesday called on the Philippines’ biggest commercial banks to hasten in advancing financing policies and energy portfolios that cushion, rather than enable, the country’s vulnerability to global fossil fuel price shocks.
The Scorecard, an annual report assessing banks’ coal, gas, and renewable energy financing activities and sustainability policies, found that top domestic banks funneled the highest amount of financing for energy in the last 16 years at USD 10.15 billion.
Renewable energy financing quadrupled last year from 2024 levels, amounting to USD 5.79 billion. Fossil gas recorded its highest financing, totaling USD 3.37 billion, while coal received USD 985 million, its highest since 2019 and the 2020 Coal Moratorium.
“Today’s energy crisis is but the latest concretization of the consequences of an energy sector reliant on coal, gas, and other fossil fuels. It is a crisis felt at the gut by ordinary Filipinos, as prices of fuel for transport, electricity, and basic goods soar. And every peso that banks still pour on costly fossil fuels prolong our people’s agony,” said Bishop Gerry Alminaza, President of Caritas Philippines and lead Convenor of Withdraw from Coal: End Fossil Fuels.
In the first month since the United States and Israel’s war on Iran began, global coal prices have spiked by 17% and liquefied natural gas by 91%–a cause of alarm for consumers in a country whose energy industry is characterized by pass-through fuel costs. In 2025, coal and gas accounted for 74% of power generation nationally.
The Scorecard, published by the Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED), found that deals related to coal and gas were mainly for refinancing or acquisition purposes, rather than for building any new capacity. Financing for renewables is different, however, as around USD 3.1 billion was provided to support about 5,000-megawatts of projects last year.
Nine banks out of the 14 tracked for the report have declared coal-restriction policies. Of these, six were involved in coal deals last year, owing mainly to lack of policy provision on refinancing and financing of investment subsidiaries. Meanwhile, no bank has declared any gas-restriction policy.
“Philippine banks that have made policies to restrict coal financing must close loopholes that still enable them to contribute to continued dependence on coal nationally, despite the vulnerability of coal to price shocks and outages, and unalignment to sustainability and climate imperatives. Meanwhile, the challenges experienced by the LNG industry–from the grave delays and cancellations of projects in the last half decade, to today’s price and fuel supply crisis–should already be a lesson learned by banks: that LNG is tricky business. It is in their and their clients’ best interest to shift away from both and toward portfolios focused on renewable energy,” said Ivan Andres, Deputy Head for Research and Policy at CEED.
“We see rising investments in renewable energy as a positive step forward for clean energy–but now is a time to be taking a leap. In fully prioritizing renewables immediately– such as through supporting household level renewable energy utilization as an urgent crisis response–and in the long term, Philippine banks can help unlock hope for clean, affordable, and sustainable energy for all Filipinos,” said Bishop Alminaza.