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Complaint

The Philippine Movement for Climate Justice et al. vs. Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered’s contribution to human rights harms caused by coal power plants in the Philippines

Date filed
26 February 2024
Keywords
Countries of harm
Current status
Filed
Sector
NCP

Allegations

On 26 February 2024, The Philippine Movement for Climate Justice, Inclusive Development International, Recourse, and BankTrack filed a complaint on behalf of local Filipino communities against Standard Chartered plc to the UK NCP. The complaint focuses on Standard Chartered’s financing of four coal-fired power plants in the Philippines. The complainants argue that Standard Chartered breached Chapters II (General Policies) and IV (Human Rights) of the 2011 version of the OECD Guidelines by failing to conduct effective due diligence on human rights harms, and by failing to cooperate in the remediation of harms that arose as a result of that failed due diligence. They argue that Standard Chartered contributed to the harms caused by the coal power plants and therefore has a responsibility to contribute to remediation.

In 2017, the affected communities filed a complaint to the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), the independent accountability mechanism of the International Finance Corporation (IFC). That complaint triggered an investigation, which found that IFC violated its Policy on Environmental and Social Sustainability through these and other coal plants in the Philippines that received project financing from its financial intermediary client Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC). The CAO concluded that the coal plants, which Standard Chartered co-financed alongside RCBC, likely caused a range of “significant” harms, including health impacts due to coal ash air pollution and water contamination; impacts on livelihoods due to coal ash contamination; displacement and resettlement of communities; threats against and intimidation of community activists; and inadequate stakeholder engagement and consultation. The IFC is currently implementing a “management action plan” to respond to the CAO’s findings. To successfully remediate the harms, IFC requires the cooperation of the coal plant operators, RCBC and other lenders (including Standard Chartered) that share responsibility for contributing to the harms. Despite the complainants’ efforts to encourage Standard Chartered to cooperate in this remediation process, the bank has not done so. The complainants hope that the NCP complaint will lead to Standard Chartered’s effective cooperation in the remediation efforts being coordinated by the IFC.

Relevant OECD Guidelines

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Defendant
Company in violation
Complainants
Affected people

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