The World Bank Stops Funding Fossil Fuels

On December 12th at the One Planet Summit in Paris, France, The World Bank officially announced its plan to phase out upstream oil and gas finance. What does this mean?

It means The World Bank knows that our future is in clean energy and clean energy jobs. From Stephen Kretzmann of Oil Change International:

“Today the World Bank has raised the bar for climate leadership by recognizing the simple yet inconvenient truth that achieving the Paris Agreement’s climate goals requires an end to the expansion of the fossil fuel industry…It is time for all of the institutions, countries, investors and individuals who are still in the Paris Agreement to stop funding fossils – once and for all.”

Between 2014 and 2016, The World Bank Group provided an average of over $1 billion to per year toward extracting fossil fuels. That’s a big loss for oil and a huge gain for the climate movement. The World Bank’s commitment to ending the fossil fuel era is a cue for other institutions which still fund fossil fuels. They are paving the way and taking the first step, one which others will hopefully follow. We are applauding The World Bank for setting this precedent and we hope to see others continue! Together, regardless of White House decisions, we will meet our climate goals and we will stop fossil fuels.