PRESS RELEASE: International Day of Action demands World Bank end fossil fuel funding

International Day of Action demands World Bank end fossil fuel funding

Civil society from the Global North and South unite in demonstrations against the World Bank’s fossil fuel lending

Berlin, Germany; Paris, France; Johannesburg, South Africa; Washington, DC —

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and activists from around the world held rallies on Tuesday, March 1, in London, Paris, Berlin, Johannesburg, and elsewhere, in tandem with a worldwide social media campaign to demand that the World Bank finally put an end to fossil fuel lending. Dressed as prisoners chained to lumps of coal, activists demanded that the Bank halt its highly controversial fossil fuel financing that led to last year’s $3.75 billion loan to one of the world’s largest coal plants, in South Africa.

While activists chanted ‘Free Us from Fossil Fuels’ in rallies on the steps of finance ministries and World Bank offices, activists worldwide signed and delivered petitions and messages to the World Bank’s Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites to rally against World Bank fossil fuel financing.

The campaign is targeting the World Bank’s Energy Strategy, which is currently under review. Once approved, the Energy Strategy will guide the institution’s substantial energy lending portfolio for the next decade. Activists are calling on the Bank’s Energy Strategy review to commit to providing energy services for the poor while phasing out fossil fuel lending.

Activists have ratcheted up pressure on the World Bank because in spite of its pro-poor, climate-friendly rhetoric, its core energy sector portfolio has significantly increased lending for fossil fuels by 400 percent since 2006. In fact, 2010 was a record year for coal lending at the World Bank – the most heavily polluting of all fossil fuels. What’s worse, according to Oil Change International’s independent analysis, none of the Bank’s oil, gas or coal projects in 2009-2010 were funded specifically to provide energy access to the poor.

“The evidence is clear: the bulk of Bank lending is going into dirty energy projects, including the Medupi coal plant loan to South Africa,” said Bobby Peak, Director of groundWork South Africa. ”Until we see a strong Energy Strategy that focuses Bank lending on renewable energy and energy efficiency, it is impossible to claim that the Bank is serious about addressing both energy poverty and climate change.”

According to Karen Orenstein, International Policy Campaigner at Friends of the Earth U.S., “Though the climate crisis poses a deep threat to the development gains of developing countries, the World Bank is trying to say that you can’t provide energy to the poor without emitting massive amounts of carbon dioxide and toxic pollution.” She added, “This is a false dichotomy.”

Civil society groups are calling on the Bank to follow International Energy Agency (IEA) policies that stress the need for decentralized renewable energy systems to alleviate energy poverty.

“The World Bank’s mandate is poverty reduction and the International Energy Agency is clearly stating that large scale fossil fuel power plants don’t achieve this directive,” explained Elizabeth Bast, Managing Director at Oil Change International. “More often than not, decentralized renewable energy and energy efficiency measures are the quickest, cheapest, and most effective means for achieving energy access goals and they don’t add to climate change.”

However, concerns are mounting around what the Bank classifies as “renewable” energy sources.  As the World Bank attempts to wean itself from fossil fuels, many are worried that it will brand investments in large hydropower as renewable. “The fact is large hydropower is a substantial source of greenhouse gas emissions and carries a host of social and environmental risks,” said Zach Hurwitz, Policy Program Coordinator at International Rivers. He continued, “The Bank can’t simply substitute harmful large hydro investments for fossil fuels as a quick fix.”  

Controversy over fossil fuel financing comes as the World Bank is angling to play a central role in future climate finance in the United Nations’ new Green Climate Fund. “If the World Bank wants to be credible when it comes to climate finance, it needs to put its money where its mouth is” said Sierra Club’s Associate Washington Representative for International Climate Campaigns, Justin Guay. “If the World Bank wants to lead the charge on climate finance, it must first wash its hands clean of dirty coal and polluting fossil fuels.”

Contacts:
Blog Posts:
Take Action: Phase out fossil fuels at the World Bank, by Mary Anne Hitt and Justin Guay, AlterNet, March 1, 2011 (AlterNet website)
World Bank! Coal is expensive and it kills people, by Kyle Ash, Greenpeace, March 1, 2011 (Greenpeace website)
Marching on hot coals, by Niranjali M. Amerasinghe, Center for International Environmental Law, February 28, 2011 (CIEL website)

For more information, please see the following:
World Bank Energy Strategy Review Fact Sheet, Sierra Club, Oil Change International (Sierra Club website)
Sierra Club: World Bank Day of Action webpage
World Bank Day of Action: Photos from worldwide protest (Flickr)
The Council of Canadians Acting for Social Justice Action Alert
Protestan en Madrid contra el Banco Mundial por su responsabilidad ante el cambio climático (Ecologistas en Acción website)
Climate Debt Blog: ‘Free us from fossil fuels’ day of action (World Development Movement)
Green Action/Friends of the Earth Croatia video clip (YouTube)