Oil Change International

Posts by Elizabeth Bast

• Analysis: Public Finance from Rich Nations Driving Fossil Fuel Expansion Globally

  Elizabeth Bast, March 4, 2015
  This analysis finds that over the last decade, export credit agency financing has played a significant role in supporting coal power generation globally. Most alarmingly, OECD export credit financing for coal has substantially increased in recent years.
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  Development Banks Failing on Energy Access for the Poor

  Elizabeth Bast, October 9, 2014
  Today, Oil Change International and the Sierra Club released a report finding that none of the major multilateral development banks are succeeding in reaching the world’s poor with their energy projects.

• New Report Gives World Bank an ‘F’ on Clean Energy Access

  Elizabeth Bast, October 9, 2014
  Today, the Sierra Club and Oil Change International released a new report highlighting the failure of the world’s top multilateral development banks (MDBs) to align their energy lending with the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) projections for ending energy poverty.

• International NGOs Call on Governments to #EndCoalFinance

  Elizabeth Bast, June 11, 2014
  On Monday, June 16 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)’s Export Credit Group will meet to discuss climate and energy related financing through Export Credit Agencies – public agencies that fund or guarantee private corporations from their home country to invest or export overseas.
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  Worried about a 4-degree world? Then stop digging!

  Elizabeth Bast, April 9, 2014
  World Bank Group finance for projects that included fossil fuel exploration was highest in FY2013, at nearly $1 billion out of $2.7 billion total for fossil fuel projects in 2013.
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  World Bank Fossil Fuel Lending Increases in Last Year

  Elizabeth Bast, October 8, 2013
  In spite of a heightened institutional focus on combating climate change, the World Bank increased its lending for fossil fuels over the last year. Meanwhile, the World Bank also has a ways to go in terms of tackling its objective of supporting universal access to energy, as only 8 percent of the Bank’s energy portfolio last year targeted the world’s poorest.

• World Bank Group Increases Lending for Fossil Fuels and Large Hydro

  Elizabeth Bast, October 8, 2013
  The World Bank Group (WBG) increased financing for both fossil fuels and large hydropower significantly this past year, while financing for clean energy dropped. Overall, only 8 percent of the Bank’s energy financing last year was aimed specifically at the poor.
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  Electrifying Africa – But at What Cost to Africans?

  Elizabeth Bast, September 16, 2013
  Two U.S. initiatives to provide Africans with electricity seem likely to lead to large, climate-polluting projects rather than the locally sourced renewable energy rural Africa needs.
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  U.S. Export-Import Bank Rejects Dirty Coal Plant

  Elizabeth Bast, July 18, 2013
  Today, in the first major test of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan directive to end financing for overseas coal projects, the U.S. Export Import rejected the financing of U.S. exports to the 1200-megawatt Thai Binh Two coal-fired power plant in Vietnam.
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  World Bank Shies Away from Coal But Embraces Natural Gas

  Elizabeth Bast, July 17, 2013
  Yesterday, the World Bank’s Executive Directors agreed to a new ‘Energy Sector Directions Paper’ which lays out the expected course for the Bank’s future energy lending. While there are some encouraging indications that the Bank will move away from coal financing, the increased emphasis on natural gas and large hydropower is likely to undermine the strategy’s stated objective of increasing energy access for the poor.