13 July 2021
Media reports from last week have named Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Standard Chartered and Barclays as the banks in discussion with Adani to provide US$1 billion to Adani Airport Holdings Ltd to refinance its debt.
Adani Airport Holdings is owned by Adani Enterprises, the same Adani Group subsidiary that is building the controversial Carmichael thermal coal mine. If completed, the Adani mine would be the biggest coal mine in Australia, adding billions of tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere, destroying the land of the Wangan and Jagalingou people, increasing shipping through the Great Barrier Reef and opening up the Galilee Basin, one of the world’s largest untouched coal reserves, paving the way for around eight more mega coal mines to be built. Adani Enterprises is also planning a significant increase in thermal coal mining in India, as well as a highly polluting coal-to-pvc plastics plant.
All four of the banks named have made explicit commitments not to fund the Carmichael coal project. However, if they provide debt or assist in the raising of debt for Adani Enterprises – the company that is building and funding Carmichael – then they are supporting the Carmichael coal mine by helping to free up cash Adani Enterprises can then use to fund the mine’s development. This is clearly a breach of their commitments.
The climate policies of JP Morgan, Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered will be meaningless if they don’t immediately and publicly distance themselves from this deal.
What the banks have said about coal/Carmichael:
“Barclays has no plans to participate in financing the Abbot Point development or its associated mine/rail infrastructure”
Barclays
“We are currently not involved with this project and will also not be involved with it in the future”
Deutsche Bank
“We will not finance…a new greenfield coal mine or a new coal-fired power plant in a high income OECD country…We do not finance natural resource projects within UNESCO World Heritage Sites unless… such operations will not adversely affect the Outstanding Universal Value of the site”
JP Morgan
“Both parties [Standard Chartered and Adani] have agreed to end the bank’s role in the Carmichael project…We will not provide project finance or project finance advisory services to new standalone, non captive thermal coal mining projects”
Standard Chartered