United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on October 12 urged global development banks to stop providing fossil fuel projects with financial assistance. The statement came after an independent report found that the World Bank continued to invest billions of dollars in such projects despite pledging to help tackle climate change. Guterres also asked economic policymakers and finance ministers from some countries to ensure development banks to boost renewable energy.
Earlier on Monday, Urgewald, a Germany-based environmental lobby group, reported that the World Bank had spent more than $12 billion on fossil fuel projects since 2015 when the Paris Agreement was adopted. A large chunk of the money, around $10.5 billion, was invested over the last five years, with investments in the past two years reaching $2 billion. Among fossil fuel projects receiving the World Bank’s assistance are upstream oil and gas developments in Brazil and Guyana’s Petroleum Resource Governance and Management Project.
Environmental activists have for years been urging commercial banks to stop lending money to the oil, coal and natural gas industry to prevent them from producing dangerous levels of greenhouse gasses. The world’s state-backed development banks have also faced the same call. Research from the United Nations Environment Program found that the world is on course to use 120% more fossil fuels by 2030 than it is required to align with the goals under the Paris agreement.
