Dear all,
As part of the commitment to science-based targets, we have adopted goals for electricity generation project finance and corporate loans, following the pathways outlined in SBTi’s methodology. However, through our analysis of energy strategies across various countries, we have encountered several challenges in balancing our SBTs with the realities of the ongoing energy transition.
Many Asia countries continue to rely on natural gas as a transitional fuel to phase out coal and maintain energy security. While we remain focused on financing zero-emissions renewable energy projects, it is increasingly evident that natural gas will play a critical role in national energy strategies, including by our target year of 2035. Though advanced technologies such as green hydrogen blending and CCS offer potential pathways to reduce emissions from natural gas projects, these technologies are still under development and face significant uncertainty in terms of scalability, cost, and deployment timelines. Given this uncertainty, it is challenging to align financing efforts for such projects with the current SBTi pathways for the power sector, which may create risks of not achieving the SBT targets. We’d like to seek advice on remaining aligned with the SBTi framework while simultaneously reflecting transition realities.
Thanks!