• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Saturday, February 4, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

Amid Preparations for Climate Summit, European Development Bank Invests Billions in Fossil Fuels

Arthur Wyns by Arthur Wyns
12/11/17
in Featured, World
Amid Preparations for Climate Summit, European Development Bank Invests Billions in Fossil Fuels

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim. Photo: AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Paris on Tuesday will host the “One Planet” climate finance summit, a last-minute gathering of business leaders, heads of state and civil society groups to discuss the future of a “green economy.” In the lead-up to the summit, however, conflicting interests have risen to the surface as new reports pointed out heavy Euoprean investment in fossil fuel infrastructure.

The One Planet meeting will take place exactly two years after the historic Paris climate agreement and was co-organized by French President Emmanuel Macron, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Although not an official U.N. conference, the summit is expected to gather many country delegations and heads of state, as well as representatives from business, industry and civil society.

Lauded by many as an additional call for climate ambition led by the French government, the inclusion of businesses and industries at the Paris discussions – many of which have investments in fossil fuel infrastructure – has raised concerns on how impartial these talks will be.

Conflict of Interest at Climate Talks

According to UNFCCC, the official U.N. body leading climate negotiations, climate finance is critical in addressing climate change because large-scale investments are required to reduce emissions and to make a systematic transformation to a more sustainable future.

The One Planet summit aims to keep the discussion on climate finance going, albeit outside of the official U.N. circuit and with mainly non-state actors at the table, including energy corporations.

A recently published report by the U.S.-based thinktank Corporate Accountability found that energy industries are some of the most powerful lobbyists at climate talks, such as the U.N. climate negotiations that took place in Bonn, Germany, last November.

“Big Polluters like oil, gas, coal, and agricultural transnational corporations (TNCs) are not only the largest emitters; their climate denial, lobbying, and policy interference make these industries one of the primary obstacles to sound climate policy at the local, national, and international levels,” stated the report, entitled “Polluting Paris.”

“For almost as long as the UNFCCC has existed, the same industries whose profits depend on the burning of oil, coal, and gas have been permitted to bankroll the UN climate talks,” the report said.

Although the inclusion of non-sate actors is absolutely necessary when shaping a just and sustainable transition, giving a voice to companies and institutions with large investments in fossil fuels during climate negotiations – whether they are official ones like in Germany last November or informal ones like in Paris this December – causes a conflict of interest on a scale that affects us all.

“This has long been a contentious issue because it allows some of the corporations to write checks or provide services such as cars for official delegates, to build the negotiating halls where world leaders gather to address climate change, or even to sit at the very tables where climate policy is being decided,” CA media director Jesse Bragg said.

European Development Bank Invests Billions in Fossil Fuels

Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister of European and International Affairs and one of the co-chairs of the One Planet Summit, has said that financial resources are required to allow countries to “adapt to the adverse effects and reduce [the] impacts of climate change.”

Nonetheless, a new report by the monitor Bankwatch shows how billions of dollars are still being invested in fossil fuels under the guise of development aid.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a multilateral development bank formed by 65 countries including the U.S. and China, and the fifth largest in the world, awarded $4.4 billion (€3.73) for fossil fuel projects between 2010 and 2016, which is more than double its support for renewable energy during the same period. This is despite the bank’s claims that it is addressing the climate crisis.

According to Bankwatch’s analysis, fossil fuel projects accounted for the largest share, 41 percent, of the EBRD’s $11.7 billion energy and natural resources portfolio over the six-year period.

A previous Bankwatch report warned that though the EBRD had made commendable strides in its support for energy efficiency and renewable energy in the five years prior, $3.84 billion – nearly half of the bank’s energy lending – went to fossil fuel projects. Commendably, the bank effectively brought investments in new coal power to a full stop the next year.

Although the bank effectively halted all investments in new coal power by 2013, Bankwatch’s new study found that after several years of increased renewable energy investments, the bank has relapsed in 2016, and is now investing less in renewable energy and more in fossil fuels.

Over the past five years, the development bank has spent on average half a billion a year on fossil fuel investments, with $900 million spends on fossil fuels in 2016 alone.

In 2017 this figure could be even higher, as the bank approved a $500 million loan to Azerbaijan last October for the realization of the Trans Anatolian gas pipeline, a deal that is said to fuel corruption, human rights abuse and climate change impacts in the region.

Fidanka Bacheva-McGrath, a policy pfficer at the CEE Bankwatch Network, stated:
“The EBRD has been a trail blazer in renewables development, and it has made a strategic commitment to direct 40 percent of its investments to the green economy transition in our countries by 2020. That is exactly why it is so disappointing to see that the bank’s fossil fuel investments are on the rise, including coal-heavy utilities and gas pipelines.”

“Even more disconcerting is that the EBRD counts some of its investments in fossil fuels as climate action. Such financial support for fossil fuels then translates into a moral support for an industry that is dragging our countries away from a sustainable low-carbon development path.”

The United States is the largest financer of the EBRD. Most of the Development Bank’s fossil fuels investments occur in the E.U., central Asia, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.

ShareTweet
Arthur Wyns

Arthur Wyns

Related Posts

People cool off with a fountain's water during a heat wave in Seville, Spain
Environment

UN Confirms 2022 Among Eight Hottest Years on Record

by Staff Writer
January 13, 2023
Shell
Environment

Greenpeace Sues UK Government Over Shell Gas Field

by Staff Writer
July 27, 2022
Joe Biden
Environment

Biden Vows Climate Action as Heat Waves Slam US, Europe

by Staff Writer
July 20, 2022
Australia wildlife
Environment

‘Shocking’ Government Report Lists Devastation to Australia Wildlife

by Staff Writer
July 19, 2022
Joe Biden climate summit
Environment

Biden Calls Clean Energy Matter of National Security in Face of Russia War

by Staff Writer
June 17, 2022
climate change
Environment

Developing Countries Left ‘Disappointed’ at Climate Talks

by Staff Writer
June 16, 2022
Next Post
‘I Felt Guilty’: In the Philippines, Journalists Also Bear Weight of Drug War

Duterte Seeks Martial Law Extension for Southern Philippines

Prayut Chan-o-cha, acting prime minister of Thailand and head of the junta

EU Resumes Official Contacts with Thai Junta Ahead of Promised Elections

Recommended

Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
A supporter of nurses' strike and NHS holds a placard

UK Faces Fresh Mass Strikes as Wage Talks Derail

February 1, 2023
Israeli security forces in Jerusalem

Palestinian Gunman Kills 7 in East Jerusalem Synagogue Attack

January 30, 2023
The Doomsday Clock reads 100 seconds to midnight, a decision made by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, during an announcement at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on January 23, 2020

‘Doomsday Clock’ Moves Closest Ever to Midnight

January 25, 2023
Police work near the scene of a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California

California Lunar New Year Mass Shooter Dead, Motive Unclear: Police

January 23, 2023
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Race on To Replace Ardern as New Zealand Prime Minister

January 20, 2023

Opinion

Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Commuters waiting for buses in Metro Manila. Philippines

Eight Billion and Counting…

November 29, 2022
Mahsa Amini protests

Imagining a Free Iran

October 24, 2022
Vladimir Putin

How 18th Century International Law Clarifies the Situation in Ukraine

September 29, 2022
Vladimir Putin

Falling for Putin

September 15, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post