The World Bank Group has continued to invest in fossil fuels despite pledging to fight climate change, according to German environmental lobby group Urgewald, which cited over $2 billion spent on projects in the past two years.
The bank has spent more than $12 billion on such projects since the Paris Agreement to combat global warming was adopted in 2015, about the same amount it spent on fossil fuels from 2014 to 2018, a study by Urgewald showed. The data, which Urgewald updates annually, was compiled from World Bank data and by contacting projects, companies and governments that received the funds.
Urgewald’s latest tally of World Bank spending on fossil fuels showed that the majority of the money invested over the last five years — $10.5 billion — was new direct project financing, including new loans, guarantees, and equity.
