Research

Market distorting subsidies to fossil fuels contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and impede the transition to sustainable, low-carbon development. In 2009, G-20 countries committed to phase out “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies in an effort to specifically address climate change and boost investment in clean energy sources. It has been five years since the G-20 commitment, yet very little progress has been made to end these subsidies.

With Shell in the Arctic, the scale and volume of the blowback from the environmental community has clearly caught the Administration flat footed. When confronted, they usually first mumble something about highest standards (which is completely irrelevant to the climate argument) but if pressed, the Administration and its defenders invoke a sober, scolding tone to explain: 1) We need oil and we will need oil for a long time. While we’re all concerned about climate, we’re still going to need oil and gas in the future and we might as well make as much of it as possible right here at home. 2) U.S. oil production is essentially irrelevant for climate, because “more oil production in one place generally means less oil production elsewhere – that’s how markets and prices work”. Together, these two arguments form what we can think of as the Convenient Lie that we can be serious about fighting climate change and also approve virtually all new fossil fuel infrastructure in the U.S. It’s the Convenient Lie that keeps us from dealing with the Inconvenient Truth.

This analysis finds that over the last decade, export credit agency financing has played a significant role in supporting coal power generation globally. Most alarmingly, OECD export credit financing for coal has substantially increased in recent years.

World Bank Group finance for fossil fuel exploration projects from FY2008 to 2013 was highest in 2013, at nearly $1 billion out of $2.7 billion total for fossil fuel projects.

Oil Change International has launched a new online tool today that tracks the flow of Canadian tar sands crude oil to North America’s refineries.

Our latest report released today exposes U.S. oil producers that want to export crude oil despite the fact that they still only produce barely more than 50% of U.S. oil demand. 40 years on from the Arab oil embargo and America’s oil producers have only one thing on their minds; profits.

The World Bank Group (WBG) increased financing for both fossil fuels and large hydropower significantly this past year, while financing for clean energy dropped. Overall, only 8 percent of the Bank’s energy financing last year was aimed specifically at the poor.

The World Bank’s infrastructure program in Indonesia stipulates policies and government subsidies that promote the accelerated development of over 16 GW of coal power projects in the country ahead of developing feasible renewable alternatives.

The Keystone XL Pipeline's social cost of carbon could be as much as $100 billion per year. Until government agencies properly account for the cost of climate change caused by major fossil fuel infrastructure, projects like Keystone XL will continue to impose disproportionate costs on society.

Existing analyses of the impacts of tar sands fail to account for a byproduct of the process that is a major source of climate change causing carbon emissions: petroleum coke - known as petcoke. Petcoke is the coal hiding in North America's tar sands oil boom.