Research

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.

Amidst a climate crisis and global pandemic, it's essential that countries develop public finance packages that phase out fossil fuel production and invest in a just, green transition toward renewable energy that benefits communities and industry workers. While the Netherlands has committed to redirect financial flows from fossil fuels to climate action, this report reveals that the Dutch Government continues to provide billions — at least €8.3 billion per year — in taxpayer backed support for the production and use of fossil fuels.

The U.S. government should acquire ownership and control over fossil fuel companies to safeguard workers, avoid taxpayer-funded bailouts, restore communities, save taxpayer dollars, and ensure an eventual managed phase-out of coal, oil, and gas production.

Over 70 organizations call on the European Investment Bank (EIB) leadership to stand firm behind a draft lending policy that, if adopted, would rule out future fossil fuel financing from the bank.

As EBRD and EIB prepare for their respective energy sector strategy reviews, 65 civil society groups from 28 countries released an open letter being sent to top EBRD and EIB officials demanding that they stop financing oil, gas, and coal projects.

The letter calls on Brown and the state "to become the first major fossil fuel producer to begin a managed and just transition off oil and gas production."

Ireland is on course to miss both its short-term climate commitments within EU legislation, and its long-term target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector by between 80 and 95 percent by 2050. Expanded gas extraction will only make it more difficult to achieve these goals, and must be avoided in order to achieve a safe climate future.

Over 230 civil society groups from 44 countries released an open letter being sent to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, urging him to reject the pipeline and instead begin planning for a managed decline of fossil fuel production and a just transition for workers and impacted communities.

This ninth annual fossil fuel finance report card grades banks on their policy commitments regarding extreme fossil fuel financing and calculates their financing for these fuels from 2015 to 2017. The report also assesses the shortcomings of the Equator Principles for ensuring banks respect human rights, and Indigenous rights in particular.

This briefing outlines compelling reasons for investors to question whether TransCanada should proceed with Keystone XL given various obstacles facing its construction and commercially viable operation, and suggests questions institutional financiers may wish to ask TransCanada.