World Bank Group confirmed in a statement that it will not finance any oil or gas projects from 2019. This happened at a summit in Paris, where 50 world leaders assembled to give new momentum to the fight against global warming.
The move, as mentioned, was meant to assist countries meet the pledges regarding greenhouse gas-curbing made in support of the 2015 Paris Agreement. This agreement was issued to limit global warming.
The statement also said that considerations will be given in exceptional circumstances to financing upstream gas in poor countries where there will be clear benefit related to energy access for the poor and the project fits within the countries’ Paris Agreement commitments.
The World Bank’s aim is to give finance and other assistance to help the economic advancement of developing countries.
It co-sponsored French President Emmanuel Macron, the one-day summit to find ways to unlock the money required for the global economy’s costly shift away from fossil fuels to less-polluting energy sources, and to shore up countries’ defenses against climate-change induced weather disasters.
Experts say that to achieve to the Paris Agreement’s goal of a greener earth trillions of dollars must be invested in clean energy technologies.
The global effort to minimize global warming has been constrained by the lack of money. This scenario has been further worsened by US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw America from the Paris Agreement and slash funding for climate projects.
The World Bank Group said in its 2016 annual report that it had invested just over $3 billion in “extractive industries”, which also include mining, in 2016 — three times as much as the year before.
