South-East Asia (SEA)\u2019s gas expansion plans, if realized, would result in a significant increase in fossil infrastructure. This would trap economies in a dangerous fossil lock-in, a completely unnecessary fatality for a region whose renewable capacities are as promising and competitive with their fossil counterparts. While advocated as developmental opportunities, gas and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) have the opposite effect on the health and wellbeing of local communities. Reclaim\u2019s analysis shows that European banks have poured a total of US$20.8 billion to the top SEA upstream and midstream gas developers from 2021 to 2024 with HSBC, Barclays, ING and Natixis\/BPCE spearheading the financing trend.<\/p>\n<\/div>
South-East Asia is experiencing a downright fossil gas boom: There are currently 54 gas extraction projects under development or field evaluation (1). According to the Philippine organization Center for Energy, Ecology and Development (CEED), a total of 135.6 GW of new gas power capacity is currently in development – more than doubling its current gas power installed capacity (2) alongside 16.7 million tons per annum (mtpa) of LNG export and 80.9 mtpa of LNG import terminals (3) – which represent an increase of 33% and 164% compared to the current South-East Asian installed export and import LNG capacities respectively (4). While regional banks finance the largest chunk of the upstream and midstream gas expansion, European banks also play a significant role.<\/p>\n<\/div>
Between 2021 and 2024, the 20 biggest European banks granted a total of US$20.8 billion to the top SEA gas developers, according to Reclaim Finance\u2019s recent analysis (5).<\/p>\n<\/div>