STOP FUNDING FOSSILS
Our Stop Funding Fossils program uses critical analysis and strategic organizing to end the vast quantities of government support flowing to the fossil fuel industry and accelerate the clean energy transition.
Public finance and subsidies for fossil fuels play a key role in driving oil, gas, and coal production. Climate leadership means not wasting another cent of public money on the industries that are causing the problem.
OVERVIEW OF WORK
Our research shows that G20 governments spend $444 billion per year propping up oil, gas, and coal production, while the G20’s taxpayer-backed public finance institutions provide nearly 4 times more public finance to fossil fuels than to clean, renewable energy.
These massive subsidies play a key role in expanding oil and gas production and locking in existing fossil fuels: recent analysis finds that half of the new oil fields being drilled in the US would have remained undrilled if not for substantial subsidies; at the same time, public finance for fossil fuels de-risks capital-intensive megaprojects, like massive coal plants in Southeast Asia, few of which would proceed without government backing. And as oil, gas, and coal producers face increasing competition from renewable energy, instead of simply reducing fossil fuel production, they exert their political influence to get more handouts to keep extracting.
Instead of spending scarce public resources on the fossil fuel industry, our work challenges public institutions to scale up their support for distributed renewable energy solutions that can deliver energy access quickly and at least cost in many developing countries: today, support for these solutions makes up only a tiny fraction of all public finance for energy.
We know from the work of our Energy Transitions and Futures program that already-producing oilfields, gasfields, and coal mines hold enough carbon to take the world well beyond 1.5°C of warming and up to 2°C. This means that governments who’ve signed up to the Paris Agreement (that’s nearly everybody) shouldn’t spend another cent of public money on fossil fuels if they take their commitment seriously. We call on them to stop funding fossils.
LATEST PROGRAM POSTS
Today 222 civil society groups from 55 countries sent an open letter calling on world leaders to transform international public finance to tackle climate change and deliver a just energy transition.
Minutes ago, Norway joined a major international initiative to end international public finance for fossil fuels today at COP28, called the Clean Energy Transition Partnership.
Over 250 organizations from 30 countries call on governments to support fellow OECD members' efforts to end oil and gas export finance at OECD meeting on 6 November 2023.Â
"The United States can help lead a shift of billions of dollars from last century’s dirty energy into the clean, renewable energy of the future, but EXIM's fossil fuel approvals like Liwathon are a huge step backward."
LATEST PROGRAM RESEARCH
Minutes ago, Norway joined a major international initiative to end international public finance for fossil fuels today at COP28, called the Clean Energy Transition Partnership.
Download the briefing in English or Japanese.
Despite the urgent need to phase out fossil fuels, Japan is driving the expansion of liquified gas (LNG) and other fossil-based technologies like ammonia co-firing across Asia and globally. This will worsen the climate crisis and harm communities and ecosystems. Communities and movements are rising up – particularly in the Global South – to oppose Japan’s efforts to derail the transition to renewable-based energy systems.
The Japanese government is the world’s second-largest provider of international public finance for fossil fuels and the world’s largest provider of international public finance for gas. Japan has continued financing international fossil fuel projects this year, breaking
"The United States can help lead a shift of billions of dollars from last century’s dirty energy into the clean, renewable energy of the future, but EXIM's fossil fuel approvals like Liwathon are a huge step backward."