The World Bank announced on December 12, 2017 that it will stop the financing of oil and gas exploration and extraction starting from 2019.
«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 at a climate summit in France.
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said the decision came as the lender aligned its goals to meet those of the COP21 Paris Climate Agreement, which aims to keep global temperatures below a 2 degree increase on pre-industrial levels.
Kim’s announcement marks a sharp rejection of those efforts to carve out a greater role for fossil fuels within the bank’s energy portfolio - and sets up a potential faceoff between the institution and its largest shareholder.
The World Bank Group already has a policy in place that restricts support for coal-fired power plants and for thermal coal mining.
With the addition of upstream oil and gas to thermal coal mining, this commitment means that the World Bank will no longer finance fossil fuel extraction after 2019, except in extreme cases.
In June, US President Donald Trump announced he intended to quit the pact, slashing funding for global climate projects.
The agreement is currently backed by 195 countries with Syria and Nicaragua pledged to join the movement.
