Clean Energy Finance Overtakes Fossil Fuels for the First Time, but G20 Governments and Development Banks Still Fund Fossil Fuel Lock-In

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Khaliel Moses – [email protected]

Clean Energy Finance Overtakes Fossil Fuels for the First Time, but G20 Governments and Development Banks Still Fund Fossil Fuel Lock-In 

New analysis released during World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings finds billions still flow to fossil fuels, while low-income countries receive just 2% of clean energy finance

14 October 2026 – As governments gather for the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings, new research by Oil Change International and Friends of the Earth U.S. reveals that international public finance for clean energy from G20 countries and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) has surpassed fossil fuel finance for the first time.

The new factsheet, Tipping the Scales: Assessing G20 and MDB International Finance Institutions’ Energy Finance, finds that public finance for fossil fuels from G20 countries’ international finance institutions and MDBs averaged at least $36.3 billion a year between 2023 and 2025, compared to $52.7 billion for clean energy during the same time period. Still, clean energy finance is nowhere near the scale needed to deliver a globally just transition nor is it flowing to where it is most needed, with just 2% supporting low-income countries. Just a handful of countries are driving fossil fuel lock-in. Together, Canada, Japan, the United States and Italy made up 75% of all of the G20’s fossil fuel finance.

MDBs provided an average of $3.4 billion a year in direct support for fossil fuel projects, and many continue to back fossil fuels through channels that are harder to track. The World Bank has provided at least $19 billion in fossil fuel finance since the Paris Agreement in 2016, more than any other MDB.

In June 2026, the World Bank Group backtracked on its commitment to deliver 45% of its finance as climate finance. With the World Bank Annual Meetings underway, themed ‘Empowering people, Building Resilience,’ the data calls into question how the World Bank can support true resilience while continuing to invest in fossil fuels that not only wreck the climate, but also undermine energy security and affordability. This has seen taxpayer backed money prop up record-breaking profits of the fossil fuel industry while regular households face soaring energy bills. This factsheet demonstrates which actors need to step up their commitments and speed up the shift away from fossil fuels to protect their people from volatile energy prices.

The factsheet has been released alongside updated energy finance data on energyfinance.org, and a first-ever publicly available carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen subsidies database, which tracks $79 billion in government subsidies. We found that these projects offer a lifeline to the fossil fuel industry instead of funding a just energy transition.

Claire O’Manique, Public Finance Researcher at Oil Change International said: 

“This new dataset represents a tipping point. Clean energy financing overtaking fossil fuel financing for the first time is an important milestone, but it doesn’t mean we can sit back and count our wins. A just transition will not happen at the scale required without governments actively steering it through redirecting and mobilising public finance. Wealthy Governments must move first and fastest to phase out fossil fuels at home and meet their climate finance obligations. We are running out of time. Without a fossil fuel phaseout and public finance being redirected to drive a just energy transition, we will continue to see escalating climate disasters that come at a huge human and economic cost such as the deadly glacial flood disaster in Nepal.”

Kate DeAngelis, Economic Policy Deputy Director at Friends of the Earth U.S. said: “Important progress is being made to move the world’s largest economies away from supporting fossil fuels and shift that financing toward renewable energy projects. Unfortunately, laggards, including the United States and Japan, are continuing to prop up the fossil fuel industry instead of helping countries transition to sustainable economies.”

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

• The data is available for download on Oil Change International’s energyfinance.org database. The database tracks energy finance from governments’ export credit agencies (ECAs), development finance institutions (DFIs), national development banks (NDBs), the major multilateral development banks (MDBs) as well as domestic carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen subsidies. 
• Our data is free and publicly available to make sure G20 governments can be held accountable to their promises to build a liveable and just future.