Standard Chartered to quit financing new coal-fired power plants

The company announced further steps that it is taking to meet its commitment to supporting the Paris Agreement on climate change

Standard Chartered on Tuesday announced to cease providing financing for new coal-fired power plants anywhere in the world, following detailed consultation with a range of stakeholders.

It announced further steps that it is taking to meet its commitment to supporting the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Standard Chartered PLC "the Group" has publicly reported its own greenhouse gas emissions for over a decade, and having achieved its long-term 2008-19 energy use targets ahead of schedule, set new science-based emissions targets in August 2018.

Standard Chartered's remaining climate impacts come primarily from the businesses and clients it finances and supports. The Group is undertaking developing a methodology to measure, manage and ultimately reduce the emissions related to its activities and those related to the financing of its clients, it said in a media statement.

As part of this, the Group is announcing that, save where there is an existing commitment, it will cease providing financing for new coal-fired power plants anywhere in the world, following detailed consultation with a range of stakeholders.

Achieving the aims of the Paris Agreement mean that steps need to be taken to reduce emissions more broadly, and encourage the development of more carbon efficient products and services.

As part of its sustainability aspirations, Standard Chartered has already committed to financing and facilitating $4 billion in clean technology by 2020, and is more than halfway toward meeting that goal.

The task of measuring aggregate emissions is complex and ambitious and the methodology will take time to develop, recognising that its impact will go beyond Standard Chartered.

It will build on Standard Chartered's work with Oxford University to develop innovative tools to understand the climate risks of its utilities clients, and its commitment to finding industry wide solutions to these issues through membership of the Science Based Targets Expert Advisory Group.

"Climate change is one of the single biggest challenges society has to address, Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters said.