Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) said its renewable energy (RE) loan portfolio has exceeded its coal loan exposure for the first time, driven by significant growth in sustainable financing.
The bank’s RE loans surged 80 percent year-on-year to about P52.7 billion by end-2024, up from P28 billion in 2023, RCBC said in a statement.
It said that as of March 2025, renewable energy projects accounted for 44 percent of the bank’s sustainable finance portfolio.
“For the first time, our renewable energy portfolio has surpassed the coal portfolio. The steady decline in coal exposure reflects our continued shift toward sustainable investments,” said RCBC chief sustainability officer Armi Lamberte.
RCBC committed in 2020 to stop funding new coal power plant projects and to phase out coal financing entirely by 2031. Since then, it has prioritized lending to renewable energy projects.
By end-2024, RCBC had financed 22 RE projects, up from 14 the previous year. These include wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric projects with a combined capacity of more than 2,000 megawatts.
In June, RCBC extended P498 million in funding for San Jose Green Energy Corp.’s (SJGEC) 19.6-megawatt solar power project in Nueva Ecija province.
SJGEC is part of Rizal Green Energy Corp., a joint venture between Yuchengco-owned PetroGreen Energy Corp. (PGEC) and Japanese contractor Taisei Corp.
The government aims to increase the share of renewable energy in the country’s power generation mix to 35 percent in the next five years, from 22 percent.