Oil Change International Launches First Public Finance for Energy Database

Oil Change International launched Public Finance for Energy Database (energyfinance.org). This new open-access tool tracks financial flows to fossil fuels and clean energy from G20 bilateral development finance institutions (DFIs), export finance agencies (ECAs), and the multilateral development banks (MDBs). Alongside the database, OCI has launched a briefing that explains why public finance has a significant role to play in the energy transition. It summarizes the latest data trends and political developments and explains how the database can be used to hold governments and institutions accountable for their climate commitments.

“This month’s IPCC Working Group III report was clear that continued fossil fuel finance of any kind is misaligned with the Paris climate goals, and that public finance, in particular, plays a key role in determining our global future energy system,” said Nicole Rodel, Communications Campaigner at Oil Change International. “Yet, our new Public Finance for Energy Database shows that public finance remains skewed to fossil fuels. Between 2018 and 2020, G20 international public finance institutions provided at least $63 billion per year ($188 billion in total) for oil, gas, and coal projects. This preferential, government-backed fossil fuel financing was 2.5 times more than their support for clean energy, which averaged $26 billion per year over the same period.”

“This year the balance can tip in favor of a just energy transition if countries follow through on their commitments. At the global climate conference in Glasgow last November, 39 countries and institutions committed to ending international public finance for fossil fuels by the end of 2022 and instead prioritize public finance for clean energy. They now have a few months left to turn their commitments into strong policy,” said Matt Maiorana, Communications Director at Oil Change International. “There is an important opportunity for these signatories to encourage other countries and the MDBs to follow suit and to use opportunities to cement their commitments in existing policy processes at the international level, including at the G7, G20, and the OECD.”

Civil society has been clear that implementing the Glasgow Statement with integrity means meeting the 2022 deadline, avoiding loopholes that allow continued financing for gas, and delivering an exponential increase in support for a just energy transition. 

The new Public Finance for Energy Database is available at energyfinance.org and can be configured to visualize key trends:

• By country: Canada, Japan, Korea, and China are the largest providers of public finance for fossil fuels, respectively providing $11.0 billion, $10.9 billion, $10.6 billion, and $7.3 billion annually between 2018 and 2020.
• By energy subtype: fossil gas is receiving more public finance than any other energy source, currently $32 billion a year, and this amount is set to increase. This is 51% of all public finance – an amount that is greater than all renewable energy finance combined.
• By recipient country: between 2018 and 2020 the top recipient countries were not the poorest. The top recipient countries were Mozambique, Russia, Canada, and Nigeria. Twelve of the top 19 recipients of public finance were in high or upper-middle-income countries. The greatest shares of renewable energy public finance also flowed to the wealthiest countries, with France, Australia, Spain, and the United Kingdom in the top ten.
• By institution or institution type: ECAs are the worst public finance actors, providing 11 times as much support for fossil fuels than renewable energy with $40 billion per year for fossils between 2018 and 2020 and just $3.5 billion for renewable energy.
• By year: The site’s interactive tools show data from 2013-2020, and the full downloadable dataset includes earlier data from MDBs only from 2008 onwards.

The website also has a policy tracker that rates G20 country and multilateral development bank policies limiting oil, gas, and coal finance as well as for “indirect” public finance for fossil fuels through related infrastructure, advisory services, technical assistance, and policy support, and financial intermediaries.

OCI invites civil society organizations, researchers, journalists, and government and institution officials to explore the database and help ensure public finance works towards a liveable future.