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Global Public Finance

We can’t afford a penny more for oil, gas, or coal. With advocacy, research, and communications we’re pressuring governments and their public finance institutions to stop funding fossils, and to shift this public money — and more — to renewable energy to power an equitable and just transition. 

Ending public finance for fossil fuels

More funding for fossil fuels is not aligned with a livable future. Keeping global warming under the internationally-agreed 1.5°C limit means there can be no more investments — private or public — in new fossil fuel production, including liquified fossil gas (LNG), and there must be a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels across the rest of the supply chain.

Just a few years ago, restrictions on public financing for fossil fuel projects were nearly unheard of, and the ones that did exist were mostly limited to coal. But with the support of people power we have helped tip one domino after another. There is strong momentum to end rich countries’ international public finance that has been fueling fossil expansion all around the world — from deadly offshore gas in Mozambique to Indigenous rights-violating tar sands pipelines in Canada.

But a few major countries like the U.S. Italy, Germany, and Japan are breaking their promise, continuing to use billions in public money to support international fossil fuel projects, and stalling progress towards agreements on wider fossil fuel subsidy bans and fair funding for a just transition.

Fighting for #StopFundingFossils policies

At the UN climate talks in 2021, 39 governments and institutions signed onto the Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP), committing to end their international public finance for fossil fuels by the end of 2022. Since this historic agreement, many of the signatories have followed through, already shifting billions of dollars a year from fossil fuels to renewable energy. At OCI we’re working on getting more governments to make similar commitments to end their support for fossil fuels and shift this to renewable energy instead, particularly at multilateral bodies like the G20 and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This would free up the billions of dollars we need around the world to fund a just and equitable transition to renewable energy. Beyond pushing for more policies, we’re also exposing the promise breakers and laggards of the CETP commitment – building public pressure and legal accountability on these governments to make good on their commitment.

Paying for a just fossil fuel phaseout

There is no shortage of public money available to pay for a just transition to renewable energy where no one is left behind – it’s just poorly distributed, flowing to fossil fuels and the super-rich. Beyond shifting public money from fossils to renewables, we’re pushing governments to make fossil fuel companies pay for their damages and calling for global financial architecture transformation.

Key Stats

  • $ 800   billion

    Can be shifted to a just transition each year

    If global north countries end public handouts for fossil fuels and make oil and gas companies pay for their damages, we could shift $800 billion dollars every year to pay for a just transition to renewable energy

  • $ 6   billion

    Already shifted away from fossil fuels each year

    The countries that have held their commitment to the Clean Energy Transition Partnership are already shifting $6 billion per year away from fossil fuels

  • $ 47   billion

    G20 countries’ annual international fossil fuel finance

    From 2020 - 2022, G20 countries and major multilateral development banks (MDBs) provided at least $47 billion annually for fossil fuel finance, compared to just $34 billion annually in support of clean energy

More details about our campaigns

Public money is prolonging the fossil fuel era and making it harder for clean energy projects to get built. This fossil fuel finance runs directly counter to our global climate goals. OCI tracks G20 and MDB energy finance flows at energyfinance.org, and uses this data to support community project fights. International public finance has an outsized impact on energy systems and directly enables much of the fossil fuel expansion that is still underway. This is because these loans, guarantees, equity, and grants have come with below-market rates, technical capacity, and decreased financial risks that make projects much more likely to go forward. We need the billions of dollars a year in public finance for fossil fuels — and more — to be shifted to support a just transition to clean energy instead.

At COP26, the 2021 global climate conference in Glasgow, 34 countries and 5 institutions pledged to end direct international public finance for unabated fossil fuels by the end of 2022 and prioritize their public finance fully for the clean energy transition. This was the Clean Energy Transition Partnership or CETP (sometimes called the Glasgow Statement), the first international political commitment that focused on ending public finance for oil and gas in addition to coal. Early analysis suggests that the CETP was already shifting an estimated $5.7 billion per year out of fossil fuels and into clean energy before the end-of-2022 deadline, with the potential of a further $13.7 billion per year if all signatories fulfill their commitments. With Japan joining peers in making a near-identical commitment at the G7 in May 2022, the potential total financial shift increases even further.

Export credit agencies (ECAs) are public finance institutions that support domestic industries with their investments abroad. On average, ECAs provide more international public finance for fossil fuels than any other type of public finance institution, including the multilateral development banks (MDBs). Between 2018 and 2020, the ECAs of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries provided an average of $41 billion annually to fossil fuels, almost five times their support to clean energy. Past OECD efforts to restrict and prohibit OECD coal-fired power financing has brought down coal support, meaning that 71 percent of OECD export finance for energy now flows to oil and fossil gas. 

Latest Public Finance Publications

Walk The Talk: Time for the G7 to make the COP28 Fossil Fuel Pledge a Reality

This briefing from Oil Change International shows that G7 countries, which have both the capacity and the responsibility to be leaders in phasing out fossil fuels, are not walking the walk – at home or abroad: some G7 countries are massively expanding fossil fuel production at home, while others are investing in more fossil fuel infrastructure abroad. Both are catastrophic failures of leadership, which the G7 has a responsibility to correct.

Public Enemies: Assessing MDB and G20 international finance institutions’ energy finance

This report, “Public Enemies: Assessing MDB and G20 international finance institutions’ energy finance” looks at G20 country and MDB traceable international public finance for fossil fuels from 2020-2022 and finds they are still backing at least USD 47 billion per year in oil, gas, and coal projects.

Changing the Trade Winds: Aligning OECD Export Finance for energy with climate goals

Research shows that Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries supported fossil fuel exports by an average of USD 41 billion from 2018-2020, almost five times more than clean energy exports ($8.5 billion).

Tell OECD countries to stop propping up the oil and gas industry

We have a historic opportunity this year to cut off the biggest stream of public money for fossil fuels: finance and support provided by governments through little-known institutions called Export Credit Agencies (ECAs). Oil and gas finance restrictions at the OECD would mean ending USD 41 billion a year in export support for fossil fuels, and make these projects far less likely to go ahead. Tell the OECD to #StopFundingFossils 

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