SMBC in Bangladesh: Financing Dirty Energy | Scrapping Our Future

Key Findings

1. The Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) is a Japanese megabank known as a ‘Dirty Dozen’ bank because of its track record of financing fossil fuels.

2. SMBC entered Bangladesh as the Financial Adviser of the USD 4.3-billion Matarbari Coal Power Plant. SMBC financed at least USD 238.71 million for fossil fuels in Bangladesh, but no investment for renewable energy.

3. SMBC financed 43.11% of the construction cost of the Summit LNG Terminal, which destroys the marine ecosystems, hampers the livelihoods of fishing communities and takes BDT 932 crore annually while running only on a 53.8% load factor.

4. SMBC has never disclosed the EIA report or the loan amount it provided for any of the projects in Bangladesh, although all of those are ‘Category A’ projects. It shows SMBC’s lack of transparency and accountability.

5. SMBC-supported projects have become stranded assets for Bangladesh, thus soaring the cost of energy and increasing the burden of capacity charges. GOB has to pay BDT 4,776 crore annually and BDT 114,115 crore in the lifetime as the capacity charges of the projects.

6. In the last six years, SMBC-supported projects emitted 4,96 million tons (mt) of CO2 into the atmosphere. From 2024-25, those projects might emit 9.41 mt of CO2 annually and 242.25 million tons in their lifetimes.

7. SMBC should pay BDT 150 crore to the affected communities for its previous pollution and emissions, and BDT 91 crore annually and BDT 1,533 crore for the future emissions of its projects.

8. Rejoin the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) with stronger and more transparent climate goals and a specific course of decarbonising actions it will take by 2030, 2040 and mid-century;

9. To democratise energy systems, stop financing fossil fuel-based infrastructures, particularly in Bangladesh, and support off-grid community-based distributed renewable energy.