PUBLIC FINANCE
Governments are still spending billions subsidizing oil, gas and coal. We need to #StopFundingFossils and start investing in the future.
OVERVIEW OF WORK
Since the Paris Agreement, G20 governments have continued to finance more than USD 77 billion dollars annually in fossil fuels through multilateral development banks (MDBs), bilateral development finance institutions (DFIs), and export credit agencies (ECAs). This is three times the support they provide to clean energy. Beyond providing this direct monetary backing, these institutions reduce perceived risk and provide a government stamp of approval on fossil fuel projects that often serves to crowd in private finance. While recently the level of fossil fuel support has started to drop, institutional policies to exclude fossil fuel finance are needed to ensure this progress continues.
While a number of public finance institutions committed to ending coal finance in the early 2010s, it wasn’t until 2017, following years of campaign pressure by Oil Change and others, that the World Bank made a meaningful commitment to stop financing for upstream oil and gas. Following an intense campaign effort, in 2019 the European Investment Bank committed to ending nearly all oil, gas and coal finance. Recently, the UK announced it would end overseas oil and gas finance, and the EU and US, among others, have signalled that they intend to follow suit. Building off these successes, OCI is now working to secure further commitments from governments and public finance institutions on ending public finance for fossil fuels.
LATEST PROGRAM POSTS
Today G7 climate, energy and environment ministers issued a communique committing to end public finance for fossil fuels by the end of this year.
Russia’s war in Ukraine and fuel price spikes mean international public finance institutions must roll out rapid decarbonization and aid packages, not back track by locking in new fossil infrastructure
Public Finance for Energy Database tracks all energy-related transactions from G20 bilateral development finance institutions (DFIs), G20 export credit agencies (ECAs), and the major multilateral development banks (MDBs). This includes 14,000 transactions going back as far as 2008 and totaling nearly $2 trillion.
We have had great victories this year. But there is still so much more to do in order to stop fossil fuel extraction and fight for climate justice and a just transition and to stop further warming. Indeed, the warning signs continue to come. This week, scientists presented alarming news from Antarctica ...
LATEST PROGRAM RESEARCH
The U.S. Export-Import Bank (USEXIM) is the third-largest supporter of fossil fuels among all G20 countries, according to a new report out today from Oil Change International, Friends of the Earth U.S., and WWF's European Policy Office.
A new report shows how multilateral development banks, including the World Bank, gave over $9 billion in funding for fossil fuel projects in 2016, nearly all of it following the Paris Agreement being reached and despite claims that they were acting on climate and adjusting their investment strategies.
Each year, G20 countries provide nearly four times more public finance to fossil fuels than to clean energy. In total, public fossil fuel financing from G20 countries averaged some $71.8 billion per year, for a total of $215.3 billion in sweetheart deals for oil, gas, and coal over the 2013-2015 timeframe covered by the report. Fifty percent of all G20 public finance for energy supported oil and gas production alone.