International financial institutions and governments worldwide are pouring billions of dollars into building new and existing coal-fired power plants and expanding coal mining activities that worsen dangerous carbon pollution, according to a new report that calls for an end to all international coal financing, except in very rare circumstances.
Recent estimates of global fossil fuel subsidies for production and consumption are staggering, putting the total near US$775 billion annually or higher.
This report finds that only 9 percent of World Bank Group energy sector lending in 2009 and 2010 actually went to support basic energy needs in communities that lacked access to energy.
