The World Bank will no longer support oil and gas exploration
The World Bank's move has been welcomed by Greenpeace. Image: REUTERS/Beawiharta
Paris (Reuters) - The World Bank will no longer finance upstream oil and gas projects after 2019, apart from certain gas projects in the poorest countries in exceptional circumstances, it said on Tuesday, drawing praise from environmental groups.
The announcement came as French President Emmanuel Macron told dozens of world leaders and company executives at a climate summit that they were losing the battle against climate change and needed to react.
Greenpeace welcomed the move.
“The World Bank ... has sent a damning vote of no confidence to the future of the fossil fuel industry,” Greenpeace International climate campaigner Gyorgy Dallos said, challenging banks to follow suite.
Stephen Kretzmann, of the Oil Change International advocacy group, said it was time for all of the institutions, countries, investors and individuals who are still in the Paris Agreement to stop funding fossil fuels.
Don't miss any update on this topic
Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.
License and Republishing
World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
Stay up to date:
Oil and Gas
Related topics:
The Agenda Weekly
A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda
You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.
More on Climate ActionSee all
Matthew Cox and Luka Lightfoot
November 22, 2024