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Updated September 2023 – At COP26, the 2021 global climate conference in Glasgow, 34 countries and 5 institutions pledged to end direct international public finance for unabated fossil fuels by the end of 2022 and prioritize their public finance fully for the clean energy transition. This was the Glasgow Statement (sometimes called the Clean Energy Transition Partnership), the first international political commitment that focused on ending public finance for oil and gas in addition to coal.
The signatories include some of the largest historic providers of international public finance, including Canada, Germany, Italy, United States, United Kingdom, and France. If all 39 signatories meet the Glasgow Statement commitment, USD $19.4 billion per year could be shifted away from fossil fuels, which would help increase clean energy finance to $37 billion per year.
With Japan joining peers in making a near-identical commitment at the G7 in May 2022, the potential total financial shift increases even further. Realizing this shift is critical to tip the international public finance balance in favor of clean energy. Between 2019 and 2021, the G20 countries and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) provided nearly two times as much public finance for fossil fuels (USD 55 billion) as for clean energy (USD 29 billion) every year.
However, some countries have been backsliding on their COP26 commitment by investing in gas and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to replace Russian supply during the Ukraine war. Yet, civil society representatives and the International Energy Agency have warned that the answer to the energy and climate crisis are one and the same: an accelerated transition away from fossil fuels and to clean energy, not investments in new oil and gas fields or LNG infrastructure. Governments have an opportunity to prioritize finance for the clean energy and energy efficiency solutions that are most effective in supporting energy access, security and affordability.
This briefing, regularly updated here, tracks implementation efforts and assesses whether countries are on track to keep their stop funding fossils promise.