Sustainable Economic Systems
We aim to create a more environmentally sustainable and socially just world by transforming financial and economic systems. We work to redirect tax policies and public spending to make polluters pay for the costs of their pollution, and to drive the transition to a cleaner, low-carbon economy. At home and abroad, we advocate for policies that minimize environmental and social harm and fund a brighter future. In the United States, we strengthen regulations to encourage sustainability in financial markets and fight trade policies that allow companies to run roughshod over the environment and human rights. We also work with allies around the world to alter lending practices at financial institutions such as the World Bank, the U.S. Export-Import Bank and Wall Street banks that fund polluting activities and harm communities in developing countries.
The latest energy directives from the Trump administration seek to subsidize coal in an effort to bring back an obsolete, centuries-old fossil fuel.
The board of directors at the U.S. Export-Import Bank is scheduled to approve nearly $5 billion in support for Mozambique LNG, owned and operated by Total Energies. Grave concerns exist about this project including unsettling reports on severe human rights violations linked to security of the gas project.
Today the US Export-Import Bank quietly voted on and presumably awarded a $526 million loan agreement to ExxonMobil and partners for a massive gas project in Guyana.
This progress shows how banks and financial institutions can — and must — be held accountable to protect biodiversity.
It is critical that investors — and the general public — understands how companies’ activities may be contributing to climate change, what the climate financial risk of their business is, and whether they have plans for transitioning to a low-carbon economy.
Fossil fuel financing from those signers is falling drastically, and most signatories have either eliminated or considerably reduced fossil fuel financing.
The World Bank Group (WBG) plays a massive role in directing global economic development, and has the potential to support climate mitigation and adaptation by strategically using public funds. Unfortunately, it continues to invest in profitable, polluting companies under the guise of green development. Over the past year, the…
The World Bank Group's mission is to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity on a livable planet.
Serious financial, social, environmental, and climate risks aside, the development of LNG in Mozambique has also been tangled up in a corruption scandal of international scale, and a devastating militarized conflict impacting over a million people.
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DownloadUKEF letter on Mozambique
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Learn MoreRed Lines for a Green Future: Exploring Exclusionary Approaches to Protecting Biodiversity and People
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Learn MoreFinancing for Biodiverse Futures? Key Considerations for Financial Institutions to Stop and Reverse Biodiversity Loss