PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Aug. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Fair Finance Asia (FFA) and Influencing Just Energy Transition in the ASEAN (I-JET) call on banks and investors to stop financing coal expansion and strengthen social safeguards.
In a new report, Phasing out Coal, Phasing in Justice: Roadmap for Financing a Responsible Regional Coal Phase-out in Asia, FFA and I-JET assess the transition landscape in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, the Philippines, and Thailand, and in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), more broadly.
While ASEAN member states have introduced coal moratoriums, updated Nationally Determined Contributions, early-retirement plans for coal-fired power plants, green taxonomies, and carbon pricing, the report finds that these still fall short of a Paris-aligned 1.5°C pathway.
International coal finance restrictions have expanded, yet funding persists through corporate lending and upstream mining. Meanwhile, liquefied natural gas (LNG) is being positioned as a bridge fuel despite high costs, price volatility, stranded assets, and fossil fuel lock-in.
To achieve a credible, just phase-out, the report recommends:
- No new coal development, including for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital demand.
- Time-bound, enforceable phase-out plans with zero unabated coal.
- Permanent retirement or conversion of all units, with site remediation.
- An end to coal financing, including for false solutions.
- Binding just transition commitments.
The report also calls for strong social safeguards:
- Income support, reskilling, and decent green jobs for affected workers.
- Meaningful participation, free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), and secure land rights for Indigenous Peoples.
- Gender-responsive policies.
- Protection of civic space and environmental and human rights defenders.
Bernadette Victorio, Program Lead, Fair Finance Asia, said: "The test is not only whether coal-fired power plants close, but whether the energy transition reduces inequality by protecting the rights and amplifying the voices of workers, communities, women and Indigenous Peoples."
Shubert Ciencia, Energy Justice and ASEAN Influencing Program Manager, Oxfam in Asia, said: "The ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC) 2026-2030 signals ASEAN's intent to accelerate decarbonization while maintaining energy security. Member states must now restrict investment in existing coal projects and prohibit new ones."
Victoria Fanggidae, Executive Director, The PRAKARSA, said: "Climate commitments are meaningless if financial flows continue to support coal. Indonesian financial institutions must stop enabling coal expansion, redirect capital to renewable energy, and embed human rights and just transition principles in financing decisions."
Genalyn Arcayera-Aquino, Economic Rights Program Manager, Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (IDEALS), said: "Fossil fuel incentives without a clear phase-out plan create a chicken-and-egg problem: reliance on imported fuels keeps electricity costs high and delays a domestic renewable energy industry."
Yuki Tanabe, Program Director, Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society (JACSES), said: "Governments should drive early retirement of coal-fired power plants with stricter environmental regulations and higher taxes on coal generation."
Read the report: bit.ly/4wsaWt7
Media contacts:
Kyle Cruz
Influencing and Campaigning Manager
Fair Finance Asia
kylejuliene.cruz@oxfam.org
Shubert Ciencia
Energy Justice and ASEAN Influencing Program Manager
Oxfam in Asia
shubert.ciencia@oxfam.org
About Fair Finance Asia
FFA is a regional network of Asian civil society organizations working to ensure that financial institutions' funding decisions respect the social and environmental well-being of the communities where they operate. Learn more: fairfinanceasia.org
About Influencing Just Energy Transition in ASEAN
I-JET is a multi-country initiative advancing a gender-just and socially inclusive energy transition. Learn more: https://x.com/ijet_project
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Fair Finance Asia Calls on Banks to End Coal Financing in ASEAN and Strengthen Social Safeguards
MUMBAI, India and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Firstsource Solutions Limited (NSE: FSL) (BSE: 532809), a global intelligence partner and an RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group company, today announced a strategic partnership with Cresta, the leading customer experience AI platform, to deliver an integrated AI technology solution for enterprise customer experience transformation. The partnership combines Cresta's unified AI platform with Firstsource's domain-driven systems integration, outcome measurement frameworks, and operational AI expertise, enabling enterprises to deploy, scale, and continuously optimize AI at production speed and accountability.
This partnership has two key components. Cresta's customer experience AI platform delivers cutting-edge AI agents, agentic AI augmentation for human agents, and comprehensive conversation intelligence to improve the customer experience with every conversation. Firstsource brings domain-driven systems integration, outcome measurement technology, and production-scale operations, creating an integrated AI capability that enterprises can deploy, measure, and continuously optimize. Together, they close the gap between technology capability and business outcomes, enabling rapid deployment with built-in accountability.
To operationalize this partnership, Firstsource has established a dedicated AI Center of Excellence that serves as the integration engine for Cresta + Firstsource deployments.
"Intelligence That Operates isn't a tagline, it's a technology thesis. AI models only succeed inside the right environment - sensors that see how work actually happens, organizational context that understands the why behind every action, and a domain harness that encodes what good looks like. Those are the layers of Kairos, our operating system for AI-native operations, and they are what we bring to this partnership, along with the integration capability to wire them into the systems enterprises already run. That's a technology partnership, not a service layer. Cresta has built exceptional AI technology for real-time customer engagement. Together we're co-engineering a production-ready AI solution enterprises can deploy with confidence. That's what we're bringing to Cresta, and that's what clients are increasingly demanding: partners who own the outcome, not just implement the technology," said Ashish Chawla, Head, CX and Consulting, Firstsource.
"Firstsource is one of the world's leading providers of customer experience transformation expertise," said Alex Cramer, Chief Revenue Officer of Cresta. "As enterprises implement agentic customer experience technology, this partnership will deliver both the AI platform and the implementation strategy that companies need to enhance every customer interaction. We're excited to partner with Firstsource to deliver CX AI transformation to companies around the globe."
Firstsource and Cresta will enable enterprises in the US, UK, Australia, and the Middle East to elevate their customer experience through a partnership that delivers cutting-edge technology and deep operational expertise in a single solution.
About Firstsource
Firstsource Solutions Limited, an RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group company (NSE: FSL) (BSE: 532809), is a global intelligence partner to enterprises across healthcare, banking and financial services, communications, media, technology, retail, and utilities. Its inch-wide, mile-deep practitioners work collaboratively to reimagine business process management. With operations across the US, UK, India, Philippines, Mexico, Romania, Trinidad & Tobago, South Africa, and Australia, Firstsource combines over twenty-five years of domain expertise with an agent-first delivery model to design, build, and operate intelligent enterprise operations. Through its Intelligence That Operates promise—powered by Kairos, the operating system that makes it real—the company unifies consulting, implementation, and operations into a single full-stack engagement and underwrites outcomes, not effort, turning deep domain intelligence into a compounding operational advantage for the world's most regulated industries. (www.firstsource.com)
About Cresta
Cresta unlocks the true potential of the customer experience, turning every conversation into a competitive advantage. Cresta's unified AI platform combines conversational AI agents, real-time human agent augmentation, and comprehensive conversation intelligence to drive revenue and efficiency gains across every channel. Companies like United Airlines, Cox Communications, and Marriott use Cresta to power world-class customer experiences every day. (https://cresta.com/)
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Firstsource and Cresta Partner to Accelerate AI-Powered Customer Experience Transformation
