Oil Change International launches database to expose the institutions using our money to fund fossils

(Oil Change, Washington, 28 April 2022) Public finance institutions shape our future energy systems. They are uniquely positioned to catalyze a just, transformative, and rapid transition to clean energy and a livable future — if we can hold them accountable to their public-interest mandates. But the decade-plus of data Oil Change International has collected for the newly launched Public Finance for Energy Database (energyfinance.org) shows most influential international public finance institutions are failing to take the very first step: stop funding fossil fuels. The headline finding of our database is that G20 countries’ trade, export credit and development finance institutions and the major multilateral development banks (MDBs) provided at least $63 billion each year to coal, oil, and gas projects between 2018 and 2020. That is 2.5 more than the support for clean energy by the same institutions over the same period. In addition to this critique, the report notes that there is momentum growing to end public finance for fossil fuels and shift this to support a just energy transition, with 39 countries and institutions committing to do this by the end of 2022 under the Glasgow Statement at COP26.