World Bank Funding For Oil & Gas Increasing; Indirect Coal Subsidy Support Continues As Well
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The report comes days after the World Bank confirmed its new president, David Malpass, Donald Trump’s choice for the job. Environmentalists have voiced fears the former U.S. treasury official might deprioritise climate change, in line with Trump’s politics. But Malpass offered early assurances he saw climate change as a “key problem” would not seek to reverse the ban on coal finance.
“Looking at his background, we are very curious how seriously he will lead the bank’s climate efforts,” Moritz Schröder-Therre, a spokesperson for Urgewald, told Climate Home News. “The bank’s member states outside the USA, especially the powerful European shareholders, which are currently reconstructing their own energy systems at home to decrease their climate impact, should make sure that Malpass stops the bank’s fossil business and increases its assistance for developing countries [to form] climate-resilient energy systems that benefit the poorest rather than the business and political elites.”
The Urgewald report found World Bank gas finance increased from $1.5 billion in 2014 to $2.2 billion. Oil projects also saw a slight increase. Renewables funding, including large hydropower, boomed from $0.5 to $2.0 billion. It also identified backdoor support for coal. In March 2016, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), a bank subsidiary, lent $783 million to the German Deutsche Bank and the Japanese Mizuho Bank. The funds were earmarked for the South African energy group Eskom to support a “capacity expansion program.” Among other purposes, they will finance transmission lines to transport electricity from Eskom’s new coal-fired power plants.
The bank encouraged coal, oil, and gas investments in Ghana, Kenya, Mauritania, Cote d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Senegal, Egypt, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso, according to the study. Fossil fuel projects in those countries benefited from tax breaks, consultations, or assistance to draft legislation. Among the controversial projects highlighted by the study is the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (Tanap), a 1,800-kilometer gas pipeline through Azerbaijan and Turkey. The bank has provided $800 million in loans and a $1.1 billion guarantee to the project, which has been heavily criticized over climate, corruption, and human rights concerns.
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https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/04/14/world-bank-criticized-coal-oil-gas-funding
