CSOS URGE FINANCIAL SECTOR TO TACKLE CROSS-BORDER CLIMATE IMPACTS AT BANGKOK CLIMATE ACTION WEEK

Financial institutions across Asia must take stronger, more accountable action to address the cross-border social and environmental impacts of energy transition financing, a coalition of communities, civil society leaders, and finance experts declared at Fair Finance Asia (FFA) and Fair Finance Thailand's (FFT) press conference this morning, as part of the inaugural Bangkok Climate Action Week (BKKCAW).

The press conference, under the overarching theme "Responsibility of Asian Financial Institutions for Social and Environmental Impacts of Cross-Border Energy Transition Financing," was part of the sessions organized by Fair Finance Asia and Fair Finance Thailand from 30 September to 3 October, as part of Bangkok Climate Action Week. The aim of these sessions is to promote multi-stakeholder dialogues and collaboratively strengthen regional climate cooperation strategies. The press conference highlighted the risks from unchecked hydropower projects, fossil fuel infrastructure, and critical mineral supply chains, which often disproportionately and unfairly affect vulnerable populations across national borders.

Bernadette Victorio, Program Lead at Fair Finance Asia, opened the session by emphasizing the need for global accountability. She stated, "The climate crisis is a cross-border issue that requires cross-border solutions. In Asia, cross-border investments in large-scale projects such as hydropower and extractive industries often bring profound and devastating social and environmental costs, borne directly by frontline communities. They pay the ultimate price of the energy transition by losing their livelihoods, homes, and heritage, often without a clear path to remedy. Financial institutions, as drivers and enablers of these activities, have both the responsibility and the leverage to ensure that the companies they finance are fully aligned with justice-based sustainability principles and human rights due diligence. Today, we call on financial institutions to integrate human and environmental rights into the core of their lending and financing strategies, and to redirect capital toward truly sustainable, inclusive, and equitable projects that support a just energy transition that leaves no one behind."

Community representatives from the Thai-Lao border region shared stories that reflected the severe impacts of large-scale construction projects, detailing riverbank erosion, livelihood loss, and unclear remedy mechanisms. They emphasized that financial institutions must seriously and urgently address these on-the-ground issues.

Piyanan Jitjang, a representative of the Rak Chiang Khong Conservation Group and of affected river communities in the Mekong region, challenged the financial sector to look beyond reports on paper and confront the realities on the ground.

Piyanan said, "The Pak Beng dam, funded as 'clean energy,' is in fact creating a vicious cycle. Instead of providing sustainable power, it will become a massive trap that concentrates toxic pollution from unregulated upstream mining. This so-called clean infrastructure is building a poisonous reservoir in our homeland. With more dams in the Lower Mekong such as Luang Prabang under construction, Pak Beng breaking ground, Pak Lay and Sanakham moving through the MRC process, and Pak Chom now being proposed—financial institutions must ask themselves: Is this truly the clean and just future you are funding?"

Sarinee Achavanuntakul, Head of Research at Fair Finance Thailand, highlighted the gaps between documentation produced by hydropower project companies in Laos and the Equator Principles. "Both Luang Pabang and Pak Beng hydropower projects have significant shortfalls vis-a-vis the requirements of the Equator Principles, of which Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) is signatory. This includes the lack of cumulative impact assessment and the potential impact of toxins from rare earth mining in Myanmar in the case of Pak Beng project, and no clear implementation of the Mekong River Commission's Technical Review report in the case of Luang Pabang project. In addition, neither hydropower project provided evidence of "assessments of potential adverse human rights impacts and climate change risks," a key requirement of Equator Principles."

As regional finance accelerates toward just transition goals, speakers urged policymakers, banks, and investors to embed safeguards, transparency, and cross-border consultation into the core of energy financing.

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