13 December 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The World Bank said on Tuesday it would no longer finance upstream oil and gas projects after 2019, apart from certain gas projects in the poorest countries in exceptional circumstances.
“As a global multilateral development institution, the World Bank Group is continuing to transform its own operations in recognition of a rapidly changing world,” the bank said in a statement.
“The World Bank Group will no longer finance upstream oil and gas, after 2019,” it added.
The announcement drew 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 suit.
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.
*Reuters
