World Bank has split personality on global warming
18 April 2007
The World Bank Group's pledge to reduce greenhouse gases rings hollow as the organization increases assistance for the development of fossil fuels.
A recent analysis by BIC shows that in FY06 the World Bank increased its financing for fossil fuel development by 93% and the IFC increased its investments in the private oil sector by 77%. The Bank’s substantial increase in fossil fuels, the largest contributors to global warming, is a direct contradiction to the Bank’s pledge to support a low carbon economy (as stated in the Bank’s Action Plan to the Clean Energy for Development Investment Framework, March 2007).
The fact that the poorest nations will be hurt the most by climate change--a fact supported by the Intergovernamental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) most recent report--also puts the Bank at odds with its mission of poverty reduction.
World Bank and IFC fossil fuel and extractive industry financing
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