Communities urged the IFC/World Bank to stop the harms caused by coal plants
By Nuclear-Free Bataan Movement
This morning, April 21, the Nuclear-Free Bataan Movement (NCFBM), joins with the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ) and the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), in staging a protest in front of the International Finance Corporation (IFC)/World Bank in BGC and at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) office in Makati. The protest calls for accountability from these financial institutions for their role in funding coal power projects in the Philippines that have severely harmed communities, the environment, and worsened the climate crisis.
The background of this protest stems from long-standing issues related to IFC’s investments and involvement with RCBC, which has financed at least 11 coal-fired power plants in the Philippines. These projects have reportedly caused forced displacement, health problems, environmental damage, and contributed significantly to climate change. Despite a 2021 Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) investigation confirming that IFC violated its environmental and social policies by supporting these coal projects, IFC has failed to take adequate remedial action or publicly disclose the findings and recommendations of its multi-year assessment of the harms caused.
The affected communities and environmental organizations believe that IFC and RCBC are prioritizing profit over environmental and social standards, resulting in ongoing pollution, sickness, displacement, lack of water, and intimidation of community environmental defenders. The protest highlights the moral failure of the World Bank Group and IFC to deliver justice and remedies after more than a decade of harmful impacts. The groups demand accountability from the World Bank Group by recognizing owning their responsibility in the harms caused by the projects they have funded, comply with the law and to use all its resources and influence to work directly with coal plant owners and the Philippine government to mitigate environmental damage, provide health care, restore livelihoods, and stop reprisals against community representatives. #
