Press Room

A UK Government event at COP27 in Egypt has marked the first anniversary of a groundbreaking international initiative to phase out international public finance for fossil fuels, one of the most concrete outcomes of last year’s UN climate summit in Glasgow. At today’s event, countries took stock of implementation efforts and announced Nepal as a new signatory to the pledge, making this country the 40th signatory to the statement.

Today in a huge win for climate, environment, and people, Equinor ASA announced that they are postponing the investment decision on the Wisting oil field in Norway.

A global coalition of civil society groups organized a demonstration at the COP27 climate negotiations in Egypt on “Finance Day” to demand wealthy governments - particularly Japan as the world's largest financier of fossil fuels - stop financing new fossil fuel projects and shift investments to renewable energy.

Declaring a climate emergency and stopping new fossil fuel projects should be at the top of Biden’s agenda — the future of the planet and U.S. democracy is at stake. The last thing Congress should do is pass Big Oil's dangerous 'permitting reform.'

"Make no mistake — the fossil gas agenda is a neocolonial agenda and patriarchal one. Fossil gas will not provide ‘energy security’ in Africa or anywhere else." –Lorraine Chiponda

Rather than building momentum towards COP27 through delivering strong policies and a harmonized approach to implementing the collective promise to end international public finance for fossil fuels by the end of 2022, the Summit was overshadowed by backsliding.

A week before the international climate summit in Egypt, the Dutch Government breaks a major climate promise it made last year to end public financing for international fossil fuel projects.

A report released today by Oil Change International and Friends of the Earth U.S. reveals that between 2019 and 2021 the G20 countries and multilateral development banks (MDBs) provided at least USD 55 billion per year in international public finance for fossil fuels. This is a 35% drop compared to previous years (2016-2018), but still almost twice the support provided for clean energy, which averaged only $29 billion per year.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) released its 2022 World Energy Outlook (WEO), underscoring that accelerating investment in clean energy and efficiency, not new fossil fuels, is the answer to both climate and energy security crises. In a marked shift for the IEA, WEO 2022 essentially declares an end to the ‘golden age of gas,' as a result of the current energy crisis cementing an economic case against gas expansion, on top of the clear climate case.