Gabby Brown, gabby.brown@sierraclub.org
Washington, DC -- Today, the World Bank announced that it will stop financing oil and gas exploration and extraction starting in 2019.
The announcement comes as financial institutions have come under increased scrutiny over their funding of dirty fossil fuels that are driving the climate crisis.
Axa, one of the world’s biggest financial services companies, also announced today that it is dumping investments and ending insurance for tar sands pipelines.
Major American banks like Wells Fargo have faced particular pressure over their funding of TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. The banks have a set of loans out to the pipeline company totaling $1.5 billion, which are set to expire this Friday. Sierra Club members and supporters alone have sent over 150,000 letters to Wells Fargo calling on them not to renew these loans and to divest from fossil fuels.
In response, Sierra Club Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign director Kelly Martin released the following statement:
“Major financial institutions like the World Bank are pulling their support of fossil fuel projects because they recognize that the pressure to do so is only going to increase and because they are bad investments. Wells Fargo has a choice to make: they can get with the program and take a meaningful step forward by pulling their support from Keystone XL, or they can further tarnish their suffering reputation by sinking more money into the dirty, dangerous fossil fuels of the past.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.