Copublished with Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights Inc. (CELCOR), Papua New Guinea, Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society (JACSES), Jubilee Australia Research Centre, Market Forces and Solutions for Our Climate (SFOC).
Paris / Melbourne / Port Moresby / Tokyo, Two more banks have joined the growing number of global banks that have ruled out financing TotalEnergies’ proposed LNG project in Papua New Guinea, bringing the total to 13 (1).
Intesa Sanpaolo and the Asian Development Bank revealed they have ruled out financing in response to a letter from 31 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) (2), highlighting the financial risks, and the climate risks facing the Papua LNG project (3), which they say will jeopardize banks’ commitments to keep global warming below 1.5 C, as well as highlighting the risks to biodiversity and impacts on human rights.
Eleven banks had previously indicated they would not support the project – including all the major French and Australian banks. Intesa Sanpaolo’s response means that no major Italian banks will provide finance.
Credit Agricole withdrew from its role as financial advisor last year, with Japanese bank MUFG now trying to organise finance for the LNG project.
More and more banks are recognising the severe climate and human rights risks associated with this polluting gas project and deciding they want nothing to do with it. Banks, including Japan’s megabanks, which have remained silent on this matter, must urgently distance themselves from this project and disclose their decision.
Commenting on the responses, Rachel Deans, Oil and Gas Campaigner, Market Forces
Papua New Guinea is ranked by the World Bank as the 10th most vulnerable country in the world to the risk of climate change. We cannot accept on our own land another project that will only worsen the climate crisis and we will not be fooled into chaining our economy to a dirty, dying industry. It is a trick. Everyone knows that thriving economies will be built on renewables.
Peter Bosip, director of CELCOR
The final investment decision for Papua LNG has been delayed several times due to rising cost estimates (4), with the original estimate of US$10-12 billion potentially increasing to US$18 billion (5). TotalEnergies said it would review the financial situation for Papua LNG in September 2025 when it revealed its annual earnings last week (6), with some reports saying that the final investment decision will not now take place until 2026 (7).
Banks are rightly questioning the wisdom of backing this project, which will be devastating for the climate and for local communities. LNG is particularly damaging for the climate because of the associated methane emissions, and an expansion of LNG is incompatible with meeting the targets set out in the Paris Agreement. Banks must show their support for the transition and move their money into sustainable alternatives.
Reclaim Finance campaigner Antoine Bouhey
Campaigners also asked several export credit agencies – including those that had supported an earlier LNG project in Papua New Guinea, known as PNG LNG (8) – to acknowledge the potential impacts of this project on people and climate, and to commit not to support it.
