Community leaders from the Philippine provinces of Bataan and Quezon are in Bangkok to demand remedies from the World Bank for more than 120,000 Filipinos affected by coal plants the institution helped finance, as their complaint against the bank's private-sector arm enters its ninth year.

Derek Cabe of the Nuclear/Coal-Free Bataan Movement and Franciene Enriquez of Kabataan para sa Kalikasan ng Atimonan are pressing the International Finance Corp. (IFC) to address the environmental and social harm linked to 10 coal plants it helped finance. The complaint was filed with the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), the World Bank Group's independent accountability mechanism that hears community grievances and issues findings, by the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ), Inclusive Development International, and Recourse on behalf of coal-affected communities, and marks its ninth year this month. The CAO can investigate and recommend, but acting on those findings falls to the IFC itself — a division that has become central to the dispute.

In the Philippines, communities from Batangas affected by coal, together with PMCJ and allied groups, protested outside the World Bank office in Taguig on Monday, the opening day of the World Bank Group's 2026 Annual Meetings, the institution's yearly gathering of member-country officials, to demand action on the delayed remedies.

"We have nothing to lose anymore. Destructive projects financed by multilateral development banks such as the World Bank took almost everything from us — our livelihood, homes, lives, and future," Mr. Cabe said. He cited the death of a worker at a Bataan coal-fired power plant in June and called for continued efforts to secure remedies and climate justice.

Two Bataan facilities, the GNPower Dinginin coal plant and the Limay coal plant, are included in the complaint. A study by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air found that the Dinginin plant had the highest annual sulfur dioxide and mercury emissions, and campaigners say its 100-meter smokestack contributes to more concentrated emissions and increased health risks for nearby communities.

The IFC has also earned returns from investments linked to the Philippine coal industry. At an Oct. 7 press conference, PMCJ, Inclusive Development International, and Recourse said the IFC and its Capitalization Fund earned an estimated $39 million in total returns from their stake in Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), a financial intermediary — a bank that channels development finance to end borrowers — through which IFC funds were used to support the coal boom in the Philippines. Although the IFC has ended its financial ties with RCBC, campaigners said divestment does not remove its responsibility to address the harm associated with the investments. That dispute touches on a broader question in development finance: how much accountability persists once an institution exits an investment linked to harm.

"This is personal to me. My generation's future is on the line and depends on how we win this fight against this corrupt system that kills our environment," Ms. Enriquez said. She cited worker deaths at the San Buenaventura coal plant in Mauban, Quezon, and the effects of coal development on local communities.

Ms. Enriquez co-founded Kabataan para sa Kalikasan ng Atimonan as a teenager. The group has campaigned against fossil fuel projects across Quezon province, including the proposed Atimonan coal-fired power plant.

The communities continue to face environmental and social risks, according to PMCJ, which cited the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman's latest report. "These plants have already brought failing health, destroyed ecosystems, forced displacement, lost livelihoods, and growing intimidation, and the Super El Niño will make all of it worse," said Elle Bartolome, PMCJ's policy, campaigns and communications lead.

The group called on the World Bank to adopt a coordinated approach to providing remedies, saying the IFC had spent $3.5 million on studies that generated 186 recommendations to address the harm but had kept the findings confidential. PMCJ said none of the money had gone toward implementing the recommendations or providing actual remedies, even as the IFC earned an estimated $39 million in investment returns. With the Annual Meetings underway in Bangkok, where the two community leaders are pressing their case, the campaigners' demands land directly before the institution: redirect the returns, implement the 186 recommendations, and fund a planned, managed phase-out of coal plants.

"We are here to remind them that real empowerment and resilience start with giving that money back to deliver the remedies these communities have waited for nine years and to fund the planned, managed phase-out of coal plants," Ms. Bartolome said. "Until then, that theme is just an empty slogan," she added.

— Kaizzer Angela Marie V. Manuba

This article was originally published by BusinessWorld: Coal community seek World Bank remedies after nine years.