By Dare Akogun
At its 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM), Standard Chartered came under renewed pressure from Southeast Asian civil society groups to end its financing of new fossil fuel projects and adopt a time-bound phase-out plan consistent with a just and equitable energy transition.
Despite its public commitments to environmental sustainability and biodiversity protection, data from the Center for Energy, Ecology and Development (CEED) indicates that the UK-based bank remains the largest European financier of fossil fuels in Southeast Asia. CEED’s research shows that Standard Chartered has provided approximately $205 million in fossil gas financing in the region, including $109 million in loans and $961 million in underwriting.
The bank’s key fossil fuel clients in the region include San Miguel Corporation (Philippines), PT Pertamina (Indonesia), PETRONAS (Malaysia), Gulf Energy (Thailand), and MOECO Vietnam Petroleum Co., Ltd. (Vietnam).
Critics say the bank’s continued financial backing of fossil fuel developers directly threatens critical ecosystems such as the Coral Triangle, one of the world’s richest centers of marine biodiversity, which supports the livelihoods of millions across the region.
“Standard Chartered’s ongoing financing of fossil fuels in Southeast Asia endangers the Coral Triangle, a critical ecosystem that sustains millions of people,” said Gerry Arances, Executive Director of CEED. “If the bank truly cares about nature and biodiversity, it must stop enabling fossil fuel projects, specifically fossil gas and LNG, that destroy marine life and exacerbate the climate crisis.”
Representing frontline communities in the Philippines, Bishop Gerardo Alminaza, Vice President of Caritas Philippines, confronted the bank’s leadership during the AGM, raising moral and ethical concerns over its support for fossil fuel activities in the Verde Island Passage (VIP), an ecologically sensitive marine corridor.
“I ask you then, as a fellow steward of our common home: Do you think it is moral and ethical for Standard Chartered to continue supporting fossil fuel projects in the Philippines, especially in the Verde Island Passage, after being confronted with overwhelming evidence of suffering from communities?” Bishop Alminaza asked. “Will Bill Winters and the Board commit to meeting with the Protect VIP network and the poorest of the poor to hear how the Bank’s activities have enabled fossil fuel development on the VIP that harms communities?”
In response, Maria Ramos, the newly appointed Chairperson of Standard Chartered, defended the bank’s approach, citing adherence to its internal environmental and social governance frameworks.
“We care about nature, biodiversity, and the social impact. We care about human rights. We use our position statements. We have strong governance in the bank to make sure that the decisions we make are in line with the position statements,” said Ramos. “It is within that framework that we make our decisions, whether to support or not to support particular clients or projects.”
But campaigners remain unsatisfied. Arances noted that Standard Chartered’s refusal to commit to a fossil fuel phase-out signals a dangerous disconnect from the climate realities facing vulnerable communities.
“Standard Chartered claims to care, but caring requires action, not just words,” he said. “The people of the Coral Triangle and Southeast Asia need a concrete commitment to stop funding the destruction of our environment.”
The pressure on global financial institutions to divest from fossil fuels has intensified as scientists and civil society groups stress the incompatibility of continued fossil fuel expansion with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
