the name's Bond.
- Details
- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
Toxic bonds are propping up the dirtiest companies on earth - and none more so than KEPCO.
KEPCO is a major polluter issuing billions of dollars in bonds to fund its reliance on coal. But we can cut them off.
Will you add your voice and call on global investors to boycott KEPCO's toxic bonds?
Sylvia,
Last month I emailed you about bonds. Not the 007 kind of bond, but the toxic bonds that are financing climate disaster. $4.4 trillion of dirty bonds have been issued by fossil fuel companies since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed.
But Sylvia - you have the power to change that.
Meet KEPCO: South Korea’s largest energy company. It generates almost all its power from coal and gas. And in the last few years has built coal mines in Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. With stories of... land grabbing, polluted fishing waters and devious silencing of protestors.
It’s financing this dirty habit by issuing bonds. Lots of them. And they are being snapped up by some of the world’s largest investors: TIAA, PIMCO and abrdn.
Will you add your voice and call on investors to stop buying KEPCO's toxic bonds?
You may find yourself asking, how do polluting companies like KEPCO find hundreds of billions of dollars during a climate crisis to build new coal plants? The team’s worked with top researchers to uncover that some of the biggest financiers of KEPCO’s coal expansion are:
- US pension fund for teachers, professors and charity workers TIAA
- US investment giant PIMCO, which buys bonds for most of the world’s pension funds
- UK investment company abrdn
COP27 is over and we've heard enough stories of backsliding by politicians on their climate commitments. We cannot wait for politicians to save the planet or for investors to act without pressure. We have to use our power now.
KEPCO is uniquely reliant on toxic bonds to fund its dirty coal habits. If we push some of the world's most influential investors to stop buying these bonds it will give KEPCO no choice but to speed up the transition to clean energy.
Thanks for all that you do,
Bryony, Nick and the team at SumOfUs.
In case you missed it, here's last month's email:
It’s ready to share with you...
For the last year a small team has been working on a monumental investigation into how 30 of the biggest, dirtiest coal, oil and gas companies are able to find billions of dollars during a climate crisis. It comes down to three words: the bond market.
The science is clear: fossil giants cannot keep digging up dirty fuels if we want a chance to keep global heating below the critical 1.5 degrees needed to preserve life. There is simply no room in the global carbon budget for new coal, oil and gas projects.
But to stop them, we need to cut off their cash.
Find out how bond markets are speeding up climate destruction - watch the video here!
And then stay tuned for our first major Toxic Bonds campaign - it's just around the corner.
Thanks for all that you do,
Bryony, Nick and the team at SumOfUs
More information:
KEPCO’s clean energy transition hangs in the balance, IEEFA, 13 October 2022
KEPCO Issues USD 8bn Of Corporate Bonds In 2022 Q1 Alone, 72% Of Its Market Value, Toxic Bonds, 10 May 2022
In Indonesia, a ‘devious’ policy silences opposition to mining, activists say, Mongabay News, 9 February 2022
Activists Target $491 Billion in ‘Toxic’ Oil, Gas and Coal Bonds, Bloomberg, 10 May 2022
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