A group of 50 NGOs found that bank and subsidiaries had funded oil refinery and gas processing, reports The Guardian.
The World Bank has provided $14.8 billion into fossil fuel projects globally in the period following the landmark Paris climate accord, a report said Thursday.
Funding for “upstream” oil and gas projects from the World Bank was meant to stop from 2019 but the Big Shift Global, a coalition of more than 50 NGOs, has found the bank and its subsidiaries funding oil refinery and gas processing since then.
As the bank is also instrumental in helping to catalyse investment from other donors and the private sector, its direct funding of $14.8bn to fossil fuel since the Paris agreement is likely to be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to assistance to high-carbon development, according to the report published on Thursday.
"Each time the World Bank invests in another fossil fuel project, it fuels more climate disaster," said Sophie Richmond of Big Shift. "There is no justification for using taxpayers' money to exacerbate the climate crisis."
One of the main ways the Bank continued to fund fossil fuels was by exploiting a "major loophole" by lending to intermediaries such as banks or financial institutions and by acting as a guarantor in case a country did not meet its obligations, the report said.
A spokesperson from the World Bank said: “We are rigorous about how we apply the methodology and only assign co-benefits for the share of financing in a given project that is directly tied to climate action.”
Bd-pratidin English/Ishrar Tabassum
