Indonesian coal giant Adaro Energy is struggling to raise money from international banks to finance a landmark $2bn aluminium project, as environmental groups accuse the company and its partner, South Korea’s Hyundai, of “greenwashing”.

Adaro Minerals, a unit of Indonesian billionaire Garibaldi Thohir’s Adaro Energy, is marketing the project in North Kalimantan province as a flagship green, renewable development for the south-east Asian economy — even though it involves building a 2.2GW coal power plant.

Adaro Minerals listed in January 2022 and was among the world’s best performing stocks last year — rising 1,595 per cent. It wants to expand into aluminium and battery making for electric vehicles but most of its revenue is still from coal, and the group benefited from higher exports and prices of the commodity following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.