Read the latest insights and analysis from the experts at Oil Change International.
A new briefing shows that about one-quarter of multilateral development banks’ energy investments between fiscal years 2014 and 2016 flowed to fossil fuel infrastructure, directly at odds with efforts to fight climate change.
The World Bank should prioritize energy access by redirecting energy financing away from large fossil fuel projects toward decentralized renewables.
In spite of a heightened institutional focus on combating climate change, the World Bank increased its lending for fossil fuels over the last year. Meanwhile, the World Bank also has a ways to go in terms of tackling its objective of supporting universal access to energy, as only 8 percent of the Bank’s energy portfolio last year targeted the world’s poorest.
A new investigation by Oil Change International shows that the World Bank’s infrastructure program in Indonesia reads like a coal industry wish list stipulating policies and government subsidies that promote the fast-tracked development of over 40 coal projects in the country ahead of developing feasible renewable alternatives.
Two U.S. initiatives to provide Africans with electricity seem likely to lead to large, climate-polluting projects rather than the locally sourced renewable energy rural Africa needs.
