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.
World Bank
59 Groups Pressure World Bank to Clean Up Energy Lending
Development, faith, human rights, community, and environmental groups from more than 20 countries teamed up today to ask World Bank President Jim Kim to end Bank support for all fossil fuel projects unless the projects are solely focused on directly increasing energy access for the poor.
World Bank starts swimmin’, but still might sink
Then you better start swimmin’ Or you’ll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin’. – Bob Dylan After decades of campaign efforts to get the World Bank to stop investing in fossil fuels, it appears that the institution that was for many years the largest source of multilateral public support for the … Read More
Shift the Subsidies Database Reveals $40 Billion in Fossil Fuel Funding Over Last Four Years
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
Civil Society to World Bank: Clean Up Dirty Energy Financing
New report shows institution lacking clean energy lending strategy and instead considering a new loan for coal power in Kosovo BASIC South Initiative – Campagna per la riforma della Banca Mondiale (Italy) – Friends of the Earth U.S. – groundWork (South Africa) – International Rivers – Oil Change International – Sierra Club (U.S.) – Urgewald … Read More
Report Finds World Bank’s Energy Lending Fails to Target the Poorest
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
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
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
Join this Friday’s Rally at the World Bank: Support Clean Energy for the Poor
We need your help this Friday to call on the World Bank Group to direct its energy lending to provide healthy, clean energy access to the world’s poor. Currently, 1.4 billion people mostly in rural Asia and Africa are without access to electricity. The World Bank says that alleviating this energy poverty is one of … Read More
Join the International Call: World Bank, Free Us from Fossil Fuels
It’s time to shift international energy investments to support energy services that are clean, reliable, and sustainable, and honestly provide energy access for the poorest. You can help. The World Bank – an influential development bank that runs on taxpayer money – is currently updating its Energy Strategy that will guide its investments for the … Read More