FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 25, 2017
CONTACT:
Alex Doukas, alex@priceofoil.org, +1 202 817 0357
Collin Rees, collin@priceofoil.org, +1 308 293 3159
Multilateral development banks continue to fund fossil fuels, lag behind in renewables financing
New analysis shows that six key multilateral banks gave over $83 billion to fossil fuel infrastructure between 2008 and 2015, despite committing to tackle climate change
On the eve of the G7 Leaders’ Summit, a new analysis shows that despite commitments to help tackle climate change, six key multilateral banks financed over $7 billion in coal, oil, and gas projects in 2015. Even in the face of Donald Trump’s climate denial, G7 leaders can take a major step to fight climate change if they commit to shifting multilateral development resources from brown to green.
The multilateral development banks’ $7 billion in fossil fuel finance in 2015 is part of over $83 billion in support for fossil fuel projects they provided between 2008 and 2015, according to the new analysis by Oil Change International. The six major multilateral development banks (MDBs) studied – the World Bank Group, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank – continue to provide substantial support for fossil fuels, despite strongly-worded promises to fight climate change.
In 2015, the year the Paris Agreement was signed, 22% of energy finance from these banks still went to fossil fuels. Nor has there been a clear trend in clean energy finance across the MDBs in recent years, with finance for new renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and small hydro actually declining each year from 2013 through 2015.
“These banks are using tax dollars to bet on last century’s energy technologies despite the dizzying fall in renewable energy costs across the world. These bad bets aren’t just burning taxpayer money – they’re also locking us into decades of climate pollution that make poverty worse,” said Alex Doukas, Senior Campaigner with Oil Change International. “With the lofty climate rhetoric of most G7 leaders, you’d think they’d be more interested in actually shifting our tax dollars to climate solutions, not dirty energy. The multilateral development banks are supposed to be eliminating poverty, but instead they’re exacerbating it by driving climate change through big spending on fossil fuel infrastructure.”
See the Full Analysis: https://priceofoil.org/2017/05/24/fossil-fuel-finance-mdbs-paris/
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