(Reuters) A Filipino priest is touring top European banks to demand they curtail ties with companies behind new fossil fuel projects in a region of his home country that is rich in fish and coral. But he is leaving his meetings with bankers feeling frustrated.
The priest, Edwin Gariguez, and the environmentalists accompanying him are just the latest activists from around the globe to make a case in person to banks that they should be bolder in cutting off financing for polluting industries.
Gariguez and his colleagues are calling on banks – including Standard Chartered STAN.L, Barclays BARC.L, Deutsche Bank DBKGn.DE and UBS UBSG.S – to stop lending, underwriting and investing in Shell SHEL.L and the conglomerate San Miguel SMC.PS. Both are behind new and planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in the so-called Verde Island Passage – a region he calls the “Amazon of the oceans”.
Many big banks have been marketing themselves as lenders that firms can turn to as they transition to a greener future, a strategy they view as also key to boosting profits. The lenders have favoured a gradual approach, tightening their policies on financing the coal industry but slower to clamp down on oil and gas financing in a disappointment to activists… Read More
