Nippon to stop financing coal-fired power

TOKYO: Nippon Life Insurance Co will no longer extend loans for, or invest in, coal-fired power plants due to environmental concerns, an official at Japan´s biggest life insurer said, in the first such move by a major Japanese institutional investor.

Japanese banks in recent months have tightened lending criteria for coal power, indicating a global divestment of fossil-fuel assets that has cut $6 trillion worth of investment has reached the world´s third-biggest economy.

"We have decided to stop new investment and lending to coal-fired power projects at home and overseas," Yusuke Takaishi, deputy general manager at Nippon Life´s finance and investment planning department, told Reuters in an interview.

Exceptions would be where a power station employs technology that captures the environmentally harmful carbon dioxide emitted by burning coal and stores it underground, an expensive option used in only a few locations worldwide.

Nippon Life has assets of over 74 trillion yen ($667 billion) so its action may influence other Japanese investors, analysts said.