The Philippine Movement for Climate Justice et al. vs. Standard Chartered

On February 26, 2024, the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice, Inclusive Development International, Recourse, and BankTrack filed a complaint on behalf of local Filipino communities against Standard Chartered plc to the UK NCP. The complainants argued that in financing four coal-fired power plants in the Philippines, Standard Chartered breached Chapters II (General Policies) and IV (Human Rights) of the 2011 version of the OECD Guidelines. The complaint alleges failure to conduct effective due diligence on human rights harms and failure to cooperate in the remediation of harms that arose as a result of that failed due diligence. In 2017, the affected communities filed a complaint to the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), the independent accountability mechanism of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), that led to a finding that IFC violated its Policy on Environmental and Social Sustainability through these and other coal plants in the Philippines. The CAO concluded that the coal plants likely caused a range of “significant” environmental and social harms and the IFC is now implementing a “management action plan.” As one of the lenders, Standard Chartered has not cooperated in the remediation process; thus, one objective of the NCP complaint is to encourage effective cooperation.