Sustainable Energy and Economy Network

In its own words, the World Bank Group’s position as a leading source of global fossil fuel financing poses a “clear and present danger” to its reputation and the global commons. This brief shows that over $24 billion of World Bank financing has poured into projects designed to extract, transport, process and burn fossil fuels drilled and mined from developing countries from 1992 to 2002. The cumulative impacts of these hundreds of projects are considerable. While transferring natural resources into transnational private hands, the World Bank is aiding and abetting economic disparity, repression, political instability, local environmental disasters, and global climate change.

This study of World Bank Group financing for fossil fuels finds that the big winners of this globalization game are some of the largest transnational corporations in the world.

This report covers two lists naming transnational corporations that have benefited from World Bank Group financing for fossil fuels since 1992, one table identifying the top 50 transnational corporate beneficiaries, another table itemizing 130 corporations’ ties to World Bank projects.

Energy deregulation has resulted in the energy needs of the vast majority of citizens — the poorest as well as those in need of power for businesses, hospitals, schools and other public services to function — being routinely sacrificed for private gain. So long as the World Bank, IMF, WTO, U.S. Government and corporations continue to advance this agenda of energy and power deregulation, all signs suggest that future "Enrons" will continue to occur, with devastating public consequences.