G20 Nations Continue to Finance the Climate Crisis: Report

Since the Paris Agreement was signed in late 2015, “G20 (Group of 20) countries have (...provided) at least US $77 billion a year in finance for oil, gas, and coal projects through their public finance institutions,” a study from Oil Change International and Friends of the Earth (FOE) U.S., released Wednesday, found.

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The Paris agreement aims to keep global temperature rise well below 2°C and further limit it to 1.5°C by 2100.

Despite their public commitments to it, "G20 countries continue to subsidize the fossil fuel industry even as it makes bad business decisions that hurt people and the planet," FOE U.S. senior international policy analyst Kate DeAngelis said in a statement.

"Our planet is hurtling towards climate catastrophe and these countries are pouring gasoline on the fire to the tune of billions," DeAngelis said.

"We must hold G20 governments accountable for their promises to move countries toward clean energy. They have an opportunity to reflect and change their financing so that it supports clean energy solutions that will not exacerbate bad health outcomes and put workers at greater risk."

The report titled Still Digging: G20 Governments Continue to Finance the Climate Crisis, warns that "with the health and livelihoods of billions at immediate risk from COVID-19, governments around the world are preparing public spending packages of a magnitude they previously deemed unthinkable."

The report urges G20 governments and multilateral development banks to support a global, just recovery to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Government money must instead support a just transition from fossil fuels that protects workers, communities, and the climate—both at home and beyond their borders," Oil Change International research analyst Bronwen Tucker said.

"Instead of bankrolling another major crisis—climate change—our governments should invest in a resilient future."