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
39 countries and institutions signed a joint commitment to end any support for fossil fuels flowing abroad by the end of 2022, and in its place prioritize finance for clean energy. Recently the G7 reaffirmed their commitment and were now also joined by Japan, the only G7 member who hadn’t signed on. Here's what that means.
With hundreds of millions of people across the word suffering from the fallout of higher energy prices and a cost of living crisis caused by Russia’s deadly war on Ukraine, this week’s G7 summit was the perfect opportunity for the world’s most powerful politicians to show clear compelling leadership.
The Glasgow Statement on public finance requires signatories to end new direct overseas support for fossil fuels by the end of 2022 and fully prioritize finance for a clean and just energy transition. But only a handful of signatories have begun to turn these pledges into action.
G7 leaders watered down a commitment made in May by their energy ministers to end international public finance for fossil fuels by the end of this year, drawing a swift rebuke from climate and development campaigners.
LATEST PROGRAM RESEARCH
Overall, the MDBs are not financing energy access at nearly a sufficient level to meet the needs of energy-poor communities. Much of the energy access finance that is being provided is being directed to many of the communities that need it most. But even so, energy access is not reflected as a priority for the MDBs.
As EBRD and EIB prepare for their respective energy sector strategy reviews, 65 civil society groups from 28 countries released an open letter being sent to top EBRD and EIB officials demanding that they stop financing oil, gas, and coal projects.
This report aims to provide a picture of the public finance flowing to energy infrastructure in Africa from fiscal years 2014 through 2016. It covers development finance institutions including multilateral development banks, as well as the national development banks and export credit agencies of the countries providing the most public finance to energy in Africa.