Japan’s three largest banks, MUFG, Mizuho, and SMBC Group, are fueling a coal power boom in Japan and abroad.
between 2016 and 2018, these three banks provided a combined $7.4 billion in loans and underwriting services to 30 top global coal power producers, including J-POWER and KEPCO.
Research published in December 201810 also found that Mizuho, MUFG, and SMBC Group were the first-, second-, and fourth-largest global lenders to the top 120 international coal developers between 2016 and September 2018.
The banks need to adopt a rapid transition plan away from coal and carbon-intensive sectors more broadly, and their largest investors — BlackRock and the Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan — should ensure this happens as quickly as possible….
An excerpt from Understory