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
President Joe Biden has made good start on climate change. But one area that the President is coming under pressure is to take action over fossil fuel subsidies and finance.
Welcome to 2021, which we hope will be a year of transformative change and unstoppable momentum on climate change, culminating in COP26, the crucial climate conference in Scotland at the end of the year.
“Of course, when the clock strikes midnight to turn to January 1, 2021, the world won’t instantly be cured of either COVID or our fossil fuel addiction. But, nevertheless, as we look towards 2021, there is hope on the horizon."
Before Saturday, it is simple. Boris should be brave. He should cancel overseas fossil fuel finance. But he should do more. To encourage others to do the above, he should also follow Denmark’s lead and cancel the next round of oil and gas licensing, and end all future exploration in the UK North Sea.
LATEST PROGRAM RESEARCH
Today, the U.S. Treasury Department released updated fossil fuel energy guidance for the multilateral development banks (MDBs). Oil Change International experts responded.
With the health and livelihoods of billions at risk from COVID-19, governments around the world are preparing historic levels of stimulus finance. Building a Just Recovery that avoids the worst of climate change means overhauling our public finance institutions fast.
This report reveals G20 countries have provided at least $77 billion a year in public finance to oil, gas and coal projects since the Paris Agreement through their international public finance institutions. This government-backed support to fossil fuels from export credit agencies, development finance institutions, and multilateral development banks is more than three times what they are providing to clean energy