Research

Oil Change International publishes upwards of 20 reports and briefings every year focused on supporting the movement for a just phase-out of fossil fuels.

New Money Behind the Mountain Valley Pipeline: Eight U.S. Banks Dominate the Top 10 Backers

A new report by Oil Change International on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) reveals that banks have continued pouring money into the project over recent years, despite numerous warnings that the project has been financially unsustainable and a threat to the climate. This analysis, an update to our 2017 report, reveals that the estimated cost of the Mountain Valley Pipeline has nearly doubled since 2017, increasing the potential project cost from USD 3.5 billion to between $6.3 and $6.5 billion.

Export Development Canada’s Role in Bailing Out the Oil and Gas Sector

Canada’s export bank, Export Development Canada (EDC), already provides on average nearly fourteen billion dollars in support to oil and gas companies each year. As a result, Canada ranks second highest among G20 countries in public finance for fossil fuels. Now the federal government is using EDC to channel even more support to the oil and gas sector, which has been intensely lobbying the government for a bailout package of up to $30 billion.

Distributed Funds for Distributed Renewable Energy: Ensuring African Energy Access Finance Reaches Local Actors

Communities in Africa have generally contributed the least to climate change, been undermined the most by international trade and finance policies, and have a right to better international support for distributed renewable energy. In order to reach universal energy access before the 2030 target set by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, international public finance institutions have an urgent responsibility to provide more funding and better financial transparency and tracking for distributed renewable energy. Additionally, they have a responsibility to foster local participation in and ownership of distributed renewable energy initiatives. This briefing provides recommendations for how international public finance institutions can fulfill this responsibility, while revealing that from 2016 to 2018, fossil fuels received more than 3.5 times the support than all kinds of renewable energy did during this period.

In the Face of COVID-19, Governments Have a Choice: Resilient Societies or Fossil Fuel Bailouts?

The COVID-19 crisis poses a threat to people's health, their jobs and their lives, and like all crises, exacerbates already existing inequalities. Trillions in public finance will be needed to get through the current pandemic. This briefing outlines why continuing to rely on fossil fuels, in particular oil and gas, is not compatible with long-term recovery. It does not make sense to use the COVID-19 stimulus packages to try to revive a sunsetting industry which will not deliver on economic recovery, only to shut it down a few years later to meet climate goals.