Distributed Funds for Distributed Renewable Energy: Ensuring African Energy Access Finance Reaches Local Actors

July 21, 2020By Oil Change InternationalBriefings, Featured, Resources, Stop Funding Fossils 1 Comment

Communities in Africa have generally contributed the least to climate change, been undermined the most by international trade and finance policies, and have a right to better international support for distributed renewable energy. In order to reach universal energy access before the 2030 target set by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, international public finance institutions have an urgent responsibility to provide more funding and better financial transparency and tracking for distributed renewable energy. Additionally, they have a responsibility to foster local participation in and ownership of distributed renewable energy initiatives. This briefing provides recommendations for how international public finance institutions can fulfill this responsibility, while revealing that from 2016 to 2018, fossil fuels received more than 3.5 times the support than all kinds of renewable energy did during this period.

In the Face of COVID-19, Governments Have a Choice: Resilient Societies or Fossil Fuel Bailouts?

April 22, 2020By Oil Change InternationalBriefings, Stop Funding Fossils

The COVID-19 crisis poses a threat to people’s health, their jobs and their lives, and like all crises, exacerbates already existing inequalities. Trillions in public finance will be needed to get through the current pandemic. This briefing outlines why continuing to rely on fossil fuels, in particular oil and gas, is not compatible with long-term recovery. It does not make sense to use the COVID-19 stimulus packages to try to revive a sunsetting industry which will not deliver on economic recovery, only to shut it down a few years later to meet climate goals.

Briefing: Carbon Impacts of Reinstating the U.S. Crude Export Ban

January 28, 2020By Oil Change InternationalBriefings, Stopping Carbon Lock-In 1 Comment

The next president and Congress should reinstate the crude export ban in tandem with policies to ensure a just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels. A reimplementation of the ban would therefore require an ambitious and well-funded energy policy to prioritize justice and equity for workers and frontline and Indigenous communities in the necessary transition away from fossil fuels.