World Bank Shies Away from Coal But Embraces Natural Gas

July 17, 2013By Elizabeth BastBlog Post, Featured 1 Comment

Yesterday, the World Bank’s Executive Directors agreed to a new ‘Energy Sector Directions Paper’ which lays out the expected course for the Bank’s future energy lending. While there are some encouraging indications that the Bank will move away from coal financing, the increased emphasis on natural gas and large hydropower is likely to undermine the strategy’s stated objective of increasing energy access for the poor.

Shift the Subsidies Database Reveals $40 Billion in Fossil Fuel Funding Over Last Four Years

November 30, 2011By Elizabeth BastBlog Post, Research & Opinions 2 Comments

Development Banks Still Financing Dirty Energy New Database Reveals $40 Billion in Fossil Fuel Funding Over Last Four Years Nov. 30, 2011, Durban, South Africa – Major multilateral development banks have provided financing of over $40 billion to fossil-fuel energy development since 2008, according to the new Shift the Subsidies database (http://shiftthesubsidies.org), launched today by … Read More

Report Finds World Bank’s Energy Lending Fails to Target the Poorest

June 7, 2011By Elizabeth BastBlog Post, Research & Opinions 3 Comments

Tuesday, June 7, 2011 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Elizabeth Bast, Oil Change International, 202-641-7203, ebast [at] priceofoil [dot] org Patricia Brooks, ActionAid USA, 202-351-1757 Report Finds World Bank’s Energy Lending Fails to Target the Poorest, Calls for Decentralized Clean Energy to Achieve Development Goals WASHINGTON, D.C. – New research released today by Oil Change International, … Read More

A Pro-Poor, Pro-Climate Energy Strategy

June 7, 2011By Elizabeth BastBlog Post, Featured

For the past year, the World Bank has been reviewing its strategy for energy lending.  Responding to years of critiques and complaints from communities, activists, the Bank has taken a year to confirm what development advocates have been saying for quite a while: ensuring energy access for the poor is a critical step in alleviating … Read More

World Bank Executives: Stop Defending Dirty Energy for the Poor

April 19, 2011By Traci RomineBlog Post, Featured

The World Bank Group, perhaps the best-known publicly-funded international development institution, is pitched in an important battle over the future of its energy lending. Unfortunately, if some Bank executives have their way, the new Energy Strategy will become a blueprint for straddling the world’s poorest nations and people with dangerous and polluting energy. That’s because … Read More