Shifting and unlocking trillions for a just energy transition

(Oil Change International, Washington, 24 September 2024) Rich countries can mobilize well over $5 trillion a year for climate action at home and abroad by ending fossil fuel handouts, making big polluters pay, and changing unfair global financial rules. This briefing, endorsed by 36 civil society organizations, is published as global leaders meet at Climate Week NYC and the United Nations General Assembly ahead of COP29, where leaders must agree on a new global climate finance target (NCQG). This target must be at least $1 trillion annually in grants and grant-equivalent finance and is essential for countries to deliver last year’s commitment to transition away from fossil fuels. Only strong finance targets will unlock strong national climate plans (NDCs) due in 2025 that phase out fossil fuels. A new Oil Change briefing reveals how governments in North America and Europe are preparing to waste hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on these ineffective technologies, further benefiting the fossil fuel industry, despite their record profits. They add that carbon capture has a 50-year record of failure and ask why governments [and ECAs] are throwing billions of dollars at it?