30 September 2025
Sergio Ermotti, Chief Executive Officer
Iqbal Khan, President of UBS Asia-Pacific
Christian Leitz, Chief Sustainability Officer
UBS AG
Bahnhofstr. 45, P.O. Box
CH-8098 Zurich
Dear Sirs:
In 2024, the world experienced the warmest year on record, a trajectory projected to continue, potentially breaching the 1.5°C limit within the next five years. The mounting impacts of the climate crisis are witnessed globally, from severe heatwaves and super typhoons across Southeast Asia to melting glaciers in Switzerland, which led to burying a small village of Blatten in Lötschental. Last year, extreme weather events displaced more than 800,000 people globally.
Against this backdrop, financial institutions such as UBS regrettably continue to fuel the climate crisis by providing continued financing for fossil fuel projects worldwide. From 2016 to 2023 alone, UBS funneled a total of USD 210.73 billion into fossil fuels.
Southeast Asia is far from exempt from the fossil fuel expansions. The region faces massive gas expansion with 135.6 GW of new gas power plants in development, alongside 16.7 mtpa of export and 80.9 mtpa of import terminals.
As the world moves to meet its climate targets, fossil gas plants need to retire before their economic lifespan, creating financial exposure due to the risk of stranded assets. In Southeast Asia, the proposed gas power development pipeline remains largely stalled and delayed, with only approximately 6% of the region’s announced projects currently under construction. The risks of stranded assets are increasingly prevalent, particularly given the volatility of fossil fuels and the accelerated global rollout of renewable energy projects.
Local community resistance remains persistent, calling for the protection of their livelihoods, economies, homes, and voicing that these destructive fossil fuel projects are not welcome. Alongside these communities, we, the undersigned organizations across Asia and beyond, call on your Bank to stop fossil fuel financing.
UBS, by its continued financing, is complicit in the devastation happening across countries and communities.
Gulf Development in Thailand
UBS holds 10.14% of shares in Gulf Development (GULF), one of Thailand’s largest private power producers, making the bank the company’s second-largest shareholder. Despite claims of supporting Thailand’s energy transition, GULF remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels. The company is the owner of the planned Burapa Power gas power plant and a key developer of the Map Ta Phut Phase 3 LNG terminal. If developed, these projects could pose significant socioeconomic and health risks to nearby communities and further entrench Thailand in fossil fuel dependency.
Equally concerning is GULF’s track record regarding its potential human rights violations. Since 2020, the company has pursued civil and criminal defamation lawsuits, seeking damages totalling more than USD 18.47 million against ten individuals, including activists, academics, and a political party who criticized its business activities. These alarming corporate practices led to a climate of self-censorship and undermined the public’s right to free expression.
JBIC-financed fossil fuel projects across 15 countries
As the largest European private investor holding bonds of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), UBS is implicitly linked to JBIC’s extensive fossil fuel financing. Since the Paris Agreement, JBIC has directly supported 26 fossil gas projects across 15 countries, and has provided a total of USD 18.6 billion to fossil gas expansion since 2016. These investments have caused significant harm to communities, the environment, and derailing global efforts to phase out fossil fuels.
Data collected by the Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society (JACSES) shows that UBS holds USD 26.7 million worth of JBIC bonds as of August 2025, which has enabled projects that are associated with corruption, human rights violations, and environmental damage.
JBIC also finances Mozambique LNG, amounting to USD 3.5 million – a controversial project with an egregious record of human rights violations and corruption, in which Credit Suisse was also involved. As long as financing to JBIC continues, UBS is no different from Credit Suisse.
San Miguel in the Verde Island Passage, Philippines
In the Philippines, UBS is a bondholder of San Miguel Corporation, whose gas power plant is devastating the Verde Island Passage, a marine corridor known to be the center of marine shorefish biodiversity. The Protect Verde Island Passage (Protect VIP) has consistently raised concerns about the environmental and social impacts of the San Miguel project in the past three years. And yet, in late 2024, UBS acted as financial advisor to leading energy companies in the Philippines, San Miguel Corporation, Meralco, and Aboitiz in sealing the deal to acquire the LNG facility in Batangas.
Local communities, fisherfolk, and civil society have mobilized to oppose these gas and LNG facilities, highlighting the risks to food security, livelihoods, and biodiversity. In a recent win to protect their homes, the Philippine Court of Appeals ordered the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the country’s environmental regulatory agency, to issue guidelines for designating non-attainment areas.
Financial institutions are taking action regarding San Miguel. DWS and Estre Bank, for instance, have divested their investments due to ESG concerns and financial risks. Simultaneously, other banks like JBIC and Standard Chartered conducted on-the-ground visits to directly assess the reported devastation.
Papua LNG project in Papua New Guinea
UBS is a shareholder of TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, Santos, and ENEOS, which are project owners of the Papua LNG project aimed at developing the Elk and Antelope gas fields in the Gulf Province of southeastern Papua New Guinea and constructing LNG production facilities near Port Moresby. The company also has bonds of JBIC amounting to USD 26.7 million as of August 2025, which have the potential to finance this project.
The project is criticized for failure to comply with a host of industry standards, including the Equator Principles, the OECD Guidelines, and UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Due to such criticism and international advocacy by civil society, fourteen financial institutions, such as the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Export Finance Australia, among others, have committed not to provide loans for the Papua LNG project.
The overwhelming climate, economic, environmental, and social evidence clearly indicates that continued investment in fossil fuels is detrimental to business.
This reality for Southeast Asia is further underscored by ASEAN’s strategic goal towards renewables. The ASEAN Vision 2045 outlines a commitment to mainstream climate-responsive elements and policies, specifically emphasizing a just and inclusive energy transition. This includes encouraging the growth of renewable energy in the region and establishing the necessary financing mechanisms to support a just transition.
UBS cannot claim climate leadership while financing fossil fuel expansion. Communities across Southeast Asia and beyond are standing up, and global momentum is building toward a clean energy future.
Signed,
BreakFree Suisse
Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development
Energy Shift Southeast Asia
Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society (JACSES)
Solutions For Our Climate