The World Bank has pumped $14.8 billion into fossil fuel projects in the period following the landmark Paris climate accord, a report said on Thursday. The multilateral lender pledged in 2018 to end financing for upstream oil and gas, and direct funding had declined, but the move didn't include indirect funding, according to a report by an NGO coalition called The Big Shift Global.
It comes amid growing pressure on US President Joe Biden to fire World Bank chief David Malpass, a Trump appointee who has dodged questions about the reality of human-driven climate change.
Sophie Richmond, of Big Shift said that every time the World Bank invests in another fossil fuel project, it fuels more climate disasters. There is no justification for using taxpayer money to exacerbate the climate crisis. One of the main ways that the Bank continued to fund fossil fuels was by exploiting a loophole by lending to intermediaries such as banks or financial institutions and acting as a guarantor in case a country did not meet its obligations, the report said.
The Trans-Anatolian Pipeline in Azerbaijan, funded in 2018 to the tune of US $1.1 billion, is the biggest project listed in the report, which is called Investing in Climate Disaster: World Bank FinanceWorld Bank Finance for Fossil Fuels.
The report said it serves to perpetuate the use of fossil gas in Europe, while noting that while the pipeline may increase gas export revenues, market volatility makes it an unreliable source of income.
The World Bank Group's assessment stated that the project was expected to have potentially significant adverse social and environmental impacts that are diverse, irreversible, or unprecedented - but it gave a green light anyway.
The construction of two coal plants in Indonesia called Java 9 and 10 where the Bank provided US $65 million in indirect funds despite the fact that the Java and Bali grid is already experiencing 40 percent oversupply of electricity.
It is obvious that the new Java 9 10 coal-fired power plants will cause more harm to the environment, social and health issues, in an area already covered with coal plants and industries, said Yuyun Indradi of Trend Asia, an NGO that promotes clean energy.
The authors of the report rejected the Bank's treatment of natural gas as a bridge between fossil fuels and renewable energy, saying it crowded out needed investments in clean energy.
In a statement to the World Bank, the World Bank said that it disagrees with the findings of the report, because it makes inaccurate assumptions about the World Bank Group's lending.
In fiscal year 2022, the Bank Group delivered a record US $31.7 billion for climate-related investments to help communities around the world respond to the climate crisis and build a safer and cleaner future. A separate report released by Oxfam said the World Bank supplies very little evidence to support its claims about the amount of climate finance it provides, leaving the public to take their figures on faith.