World Bank challenged to fund the energy revolution and halt forest destruction

[jpak]

http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=32585

Washington D.C., International — Greenpeace International today accused the World Bank of hypocrisy and challenged the Bank at its spring meeting to put their money where its mouth is and stop funding projects that exacerbate climate change. Despite acknowledgment from the World Bank’s President, Paul Wolfowitz, that climate change is a serious issue, the Bank continues to fund fossil fuel projects and fails to prevent forest destruction - the very causes of the problem.

The World Bank’s current spending on fossil fuels continues to dwarf its comparatively miniscule investments in sustainable renewable energy - a mere USD153 million in 2006 (1). In its recently published report, “Energy evolution”, Greenpeace proves that with proper investment (2) – equivalent to current fossil fuel subsidies of around USD 300 billion a year - renewable energy along with energy efficiency would deliver the 50% reduction of global emissions by 2050 needed to avert the potentially apocalyptic scenarios presented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last week (3).

Greenpeace also launched a new report ‘Carving up the Congo’ (4) on the logging sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) this week. The report calls for the Bank, the largest funder of the DRC Government, to urgently act to stop the expansion of the logging industry in the country, as logging is a key driver of deforestation, which causes climate change.

Wolfowitz recently stated that climate change needs action and pledged that the Bank would “climate-proof “ its own projects. Wolfowitz also warned, that climate change will hit the poorest hardest, stating that “if you are living on the edge, climate change can push you over” (5).

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[razzleberry]

1. the World Bank is part of the carbon-offset scam

don't believe their claim about 'climate-proof'.