Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

World Bank Group will stop financing upstream oil and gas after 2019
Keith Wood | Stone | Getty Images

The World Bank Group will cease to finance upstream oil and gas after 2019, it was announced Tuesday.

The global financial institution said at the One Planet Summit in Paris that its decision would 'align its support to countries to meet their Paris goals.'

In exceptional circumstances, consideration would be given to financing upstream gas in the world's poorest countries if there was a 'clear benefit in terms of energy access for the poor and the project fits within the countries' Paris Agreement commitments,' it said.

Under the Paris Agreement, reached at the end of 2015, world leaders committed to making sure global warming stays 'well below' two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The deal suffered a setback at the beginning of June, however, when President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the agreement and commence talks to re-enter or negotiate a new accord.

As well as its decision on upstream oil and gas, the World Bank Group said on Tuesday that it would, among other things, report the greenhouse gas emissions arising from investment projects it finances in 'key emissions-producing sectors' from 2018.

Anmar Frangoul