World Bank accused of shunning renewables sector

The World Bank has been labelled a climate profiteer and accused of failing to do enough to promote renewable energy, in a major new report from US think tank the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).

The report claims that despite managing $2.1bn across 10 climate change focused funds, the bank has continued to invest heavily in fossil fuel industries and "has little to show in the way of reduced emissions, sustainable development, or benefits for the poorest communities of the developing world".

The study found that less than 10 per cent of all of the funds flowing through the World Bank's carbon trust funds are going to support renewable energy projects, defined by the report as wind, geo-thermal, solar, and hydro electricity power plants with a generating capacity of 10Mw or less.

In contrast, around three quarters of the carbon finance portfolio has been ploughed into carbon trading schemes that the report claims subsidise energy intensive industries such as coal, chemicals, iron and steel.

Critics of carbon trading, such as the IPS, claim that while allowing firms that reduce carbon emissions to sell carbon credits can promote carbon saving technologies in many circumstances, it is simply providing an extra revenue stream to large-scale polluters in return for negligible environmental improvements.

Speaking to Bloomberg, report author Janet Redman said that the World Bank's focus on the carbon market as opposed to renewable energy projects had failed to deliver significant emissions reductions.

"This does nothing for increasing access to clean energy, the development of the low-carbon economy or sustainable solutions," she said. "It leaves behind the bank's mandate as a public institution."