Standard Chartered pulls out of funding 1,200-megawatt Vietnam coal plant over climate policy conflict
What will become one of Vietnam’s largest coal-fired power stations has secured sufficient funding to be built but a key member of the financing syndicate, Standard Chartered, has pulled out following a campaign that highlighted a major conflict with the bank’s climate policy. A campaign by green groups Greenpeace and Market Forces pointed out that by financing the coal plant, Standard Chartered was in breach of its own policy on energy and climate change – a policy that rules out providing loans for coal plants above a certain emissions intensity. The coal financing also goes against the Equator Principles, a framework for banks to assess the environmental and social risk of the infrastructure projects they finance, that Standard Chartered signed in 2003. (Eco-Business)
Governance
Wells Fargo said to be target of $1 billion US fine
Federal regulators are poised to impose a $1 billion fine on Wells Fargo for years of selling unnecessary products to customers, the toughest action by the Trump administration against a major bank. The penalty, part of an expected settlement between the bank and two regulators, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, will punish Wells Fargo for forcing customers to buy auto insurance policies they did not need and other misdeeds. Since the beginning of 2016, state and federal regulators and the Justice Department have levied almost $1.5 billion in fines and penalties against the bank for offenses ranging from punishing whistle-blowers to unlawfully repossessing the cars of military service members. In February 2018, the Federal Reserve affixed extraordinarily tight handcuffs to Wells Fargo – barring the bank from expanding until it cleaned up its international financial and risk systems. (The New York Times)
Policy
Facebook moves 1.5 billion users out of reach of new European privacy law
Facebook has moved more than 1.5 billion users out of reach of European privacy law, despite a promise from Mark Zuckerberg to apply the “spirit” of the legislation globally. Facebook is shifting the responsibility for all users outside the US, Canada and the EU from its international HQ in Ireland to its main offices in California, this means that those users will now be on a site governed by US law rather than Irish law. The move is due to come into effect shortly before the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force in Europe on 25 May. Facebook is liable under GDPR for fines of up to 4% of its global turnover – around $1.6 billion – if it breaks the new data protection rules. Facebook has said that the change is only to be carried out “because EU law requires specific language” in mandated privacy notices, which US law does not – saying that all Facebook users are offered the same privacy protections no matter where they live. (Guardian)
Corporate Reputation
British firms boost spending on businesses doing good
A campaign to boost British businesses with a social mission has attracted major names, from banking to pharmaceuticals, but is far from its goal of channelling £1 billion into the sector by 2020, according to its founders. Pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, consulting firm PwC and Santander bank have signed up to the Buy Social Corporate Challenge, launched in 2016 by Social Enterprise UK. About a dozen companies participating in the scheme have spent a total of £45 million over the last two years with organisations that aim to address social and environmental issues as well as making a profit. One of the initiative’s aims is to demonstrate that businesses in any sector can buy from social enterprises, going beyond traditional conceptions of social responsibility to include them in core business spending. (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
Energy
SP Group to launch platform for home owners to sell solar energy certificates
Power grid operator SP Group is tapping blockchain technology to link up residential and other small producers of solar energy with businesses that have a carbon footprint. The blockchain-enabled digital platform – expected to be a global first when launched by the end of 2018 – could speed up the use of solar panels and offer a variation of carbon emissions trading. It would transform the local market that has until now been dominated by large producers and buyers of solar energy and accelerate the adoption of solar photovoltaics (PV) in Singapore. The platform allows those with registered solar PV panels to display the amount of renewable energy they have produced in the form of renewable energy certificates – which companies can then purchase to offset their carbon emissions. (Business Times)
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