The World Bank Group has announced it will stop funding new oil and gas projects from 2019 at the One Planet Summit taking place in Paris today.

Shelagh Whitley, head of the Climate and Energy Programme at the Overseas Development Institute, said: 'The World Bank Group is finally showing true leadership on climate change with their announcement today that they will end all finance for the extraction of fossil fuels by the end of 2019.

'The World Bank Group’s primary objectives are to end extreme poverty and support prosperity. There is now global consensus that energy access for the poor is best provided through clean energy and that shared prosperity can only be assured through ambitious action on climate change.

'All multilateral and bilateral public finance institutions must now follow the example set by the World Bank Group and end wasteful and dangerous government support to dirty fossil fuels.'

ENDS

Notes to editors

• Recent research by Oil Change International shows that the annual average of total finance to fossil fuels by the World Bank Group from 2014 to 2016 was USD 3.9 billion (including support to production and consumption)
• Recent research by ODI and Climate Action Network Europe found European multilateral public finance institutions, including the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, spent an annual average of USD 3.8bn between 2014 and 2016 on oil and gas production

For more information or to arrange an interview with Shelagh Whitley please contact James Rush on [email protected] or +44 (0)7808 791265