Are China’s banks going cool on coal power plants in Africa?
- Green groups say ICBC has agreed it will not fund a controversial project in northern Zimbabwe
- Chinese lenders are finding the fossil fuel increasingly unattractive, analyst says
Coal projects worth more than US$20 billion in Africa have either been shelved or cancelled in recent years as environmental activists have piled pressure on lenders. The number could be much higher if distressed projects are added, according to data compiled by the Green Belt and Road Initiative Centre (Green BRI Centre) at the International Institute of Green Finance.
ICBC is yet to make an official statement on the issue but Go Clean ICBC, a coalition of 32 environmental activists, confirmed that the lender committed not to fund the controversial 2,800-megawatt Sengwa coal project in northern Zimbabwe.
In an email to affected communities on June 18, Go Clean ICBC said: “ICBC also confirmed that they will not fund the Lamu coal project in Kenya as well as the Sengwa coal project in Zimbabwe.”
Lauri Myllyvirta, a China-watcher from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, said it was the “first time, to my knowledge, that a Chinese bank has proactively walked away from a coal power project”.