Email the World Bank

Tell the World Bank to make the Big Shift

The World Bank has been financing fossil fuels for 75 years. With signs of the climate crisis all around us, the World Bank has a responsibility to stop financing fossil fuels and lead the way in supporting sustainable, renewable energy. This could help provide sustainable energy to the 1 billion people who don't have access to modern affordable energy. The World Bank says it wants to stop climate change, and help provide energy for all. However, it is still supporting fossil fuel projects, instead of financing renewables to improve energy access.

Join us in calling on the World Bank to shift its energy finance out of fossil fuels by 2020, and invest in sustainable, renewable energy that will provide clean energy for the world's most vulnerable people.

Take action

Email your national Executive Director at the World Bank and ask them to phase out all support for fossil fuels by 2020, increasing climate finance and scaling up support for clean energy access.

We have provided editable suggested text for your email below.

The signs of the unfolding climate catastrophe are increasingly evident, including record-breaking forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon, icemelt in the Arctic, devastating flooding in Mozambique and South Asia, and unprecedented and deadly heat waves in Europe.

World leaders and institutions have a responsibility to take urgent action to stop the climate catastrophe. Given this, and the fundamental threat that climate change poses to the Bank’s mission, we call on the World Bank to play a leading role among MDBs by committing to end all support for fossil fuels by the end of 2020, and signal the immediate shift to a carbon-neutral world that is necessary to stabilise the global climate. This shift should be accompanied by increased investments in renewable energy access, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where access rates to electricity and clean cooking remain low.

Specifically, we call on the World Bank to:
- Phase out lending for all fossil fuels after 2020, including lending for ‘associated facilities’ for fossil fuel projects, matching the EIB’s recent policy proposal. 
- Require all IFC financial intermediaries to divest from all fossil fuels, not just coal, through adopting a robust final version of the IFC’s proposed Green Equity Strategy.
- Devote at least 40% of finance to climate by 2020, to match or exceed targets set by leading institutions the AfDB and EBRD. 
- Develop a strategy roadmap to mainstream off-grid renewable energy into its energy portfolio, and significantly ramp up public & private finance and policy and technical support for this, to meet demand and achieve energy access for all by 2030.

The World Bank Group has been a major supporter of fossil fuel projects since its establishment. As it marks its 75th anniversary, the Bank has a responsibility to respond to the climate emergency by unequivocally ending support for fossil fuel-based development, which will send a clear signal to other public finance institutions, the private sector, and markets.  We look forward to your prompt action to demonstrate the Bank’s leadership  in this critical area.

Yours sincerely,

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