Three more Philippine banks provide sustainable energy financing

All are partners of the International Finance Corporation.

Banco de Oro Unibank, Inc., the Philippines’ largest lender; China Banking Corporation and BPI-Globe BanKo are now lending to businesses that intend to make their operations more energy efficient. They join Bank of the Philippines, which has been providing sustainable energy financing for the past four years.

IFC is the private sector lending arm of the World Bank. The four banks have a total sustainable energy loan portfolio of US$257 million, translating to 82,525 megawatt hours a year worth of energy use avoided as of June.

Sustainable energy also involves financing renewable energy projects. Loans for these initiatives have reached 345,250 MWh/yr. All of these led to 742,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions avoided.

Some of the initiatives bankrolled by these lenders are microfinance in energy efficiency and access to electricity, energy service company financing, green buildings, commercial retrofits and green mortgages.