World Bank President Jim Yong Kim. The World Bank has announced it will
no longer be funding oil and gas projects from 2019 onwards. PHOTO FILE |
AFP
The World Bank has announced it will no longer be funding oil and gas projects from 2019 onwards.
Support
for ongoing projects will not be affected. One of these in the region
is the six-year Kenya Petroleum Technical Assistance Project signed in
2014.
In a press release issued at the UN Environment
One Planet Summit in Paris, the World Bank outlined its commitment to
supporting the development of renewable energy.
But in
what appeared to be a concession to poor nations with gas deposits, the
Bank said consideration will be given to financing upstream gas where
there is a clear benefit in terms of energy access for the poor and the
project fits within the countries’ Paris Agreement commitments.
Renewable energy
World
Bank president Dr Jim Yong Kim said renewable energy is becoming
affordable, hence the need to shelve financial support for oil and gas
projects.
Oil and gas have long been blamed by environmentalists for global pollution.
Oil and gas have long been blamed by environmentalists for global pollution.
“The
price of solar batteries has reduced so much that we do not need to
involve ourselves in oil and gas exploration as well as extraction
business any more. We want to get ahead and support renewable energy and
do not wish to be left behind,” said Dr Kim.
He
affirmed the commitment to meet its target of using up to 28 per cent of
funds for its Climate Change Action Plan, developed following the Paris
Agreement, which came into force on November 4, 2016.
The
World Bank Group will present a progress report of its Climate Change
Action Plan and announce new commitments and targets beyond 2020 at the
24th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework
Convention for Climate Change scheduled for December 3 to 14, 2018, in
Poland.
Additionally, the Bretton-Woods institution has
announced the incorporation of climate accountability in its operations
from 2018 through reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon
analysis of all the projects it is funding.
Experts say
trillions of dollars must be invested in clean energy technology to
meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting average global warming to 2C
over pre-Industrial Revolution levels
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