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
Promise Breakers, a report released today by Oil Change International, reveals that the stop funding fossils commitment forged at COP26, is already shifting an estimated USD 5.7 billion per year out of fossil fuels and into clean energy, with the potential of a further 13.7 billion per year if all signatories fulfill their commitments.
New research shows stop funding fossils commitment forged at the 2021 UN climate summit is already shifting an estimated USD 5.7 billion per year out of fossil fuels and into clean energy. If all signatories fulfill their commitments, then a further 13.7 billion per year will be shifted out of fossil fuels and into clean energy.
175+ organizations call on the OECD to end oil and gas finance. As a first step towards this objective, an OECD member must table a proposal to prohibit oil and gas support at next week’s OECD meeting.
This joint position launched by 175 civil society organisations from 45 countries calls on world leaders to end OECD export finance for oil and gas, and explains how it can be done.
LATEST PROGRAM RESEARCH
This analysis explores the oil production, carbon emissions, and taxpayer cost implications of the proposed changes to Section 45Q in the U.S. tax code in S.1535 and H.R.3761.
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.