Stockholm (NordSIP) – Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group Inc. has announced it will no longer conduct new investments in and loans to construction projects for coal-fired power plants with high emissions of carbon dioxide. The decision will take effect on June 1st, 2020.
Mizuho will aim to cut the lending balance for relevant projects by half by fiscal 2030 and to zero by fiscal 2050, the third-largest Japanese bank said on Wednesday, April 15th. Mizuho’s portfolio of coal-power plants totalled some JPY300 billion at the end of the 2019 fiscal year.
According to the Japanese bank, the move reflects globally heightened momentum toward accelerated measures against global warming. Mizuho said it may consider loans to projects to upgrade existing coal-fired plants to high-efficiency facilities including ones with lower CO2 emissions.
Mizuho has calculated how credit costs would increase in-line with global warming under scenarios provided by the International Energy Agency.
