"The World Bank Group will no longer finance upstream oil and gas, after 2019"In a statement released by World Bank, it is said that the bank will not fund any oil and gas project after 2019.
The decision came during an event in Paris, where world leaders sought to unlock more money for the shift away from Earth-warming fossil fuels.
The statement also said;
“In exceptional circumstances, consideration will be given to financing upstream gas in the poorest countries where there is a clear benefit in terms of energy access for the poor and the project fits within the countries’ Paris Agreement commitments,”
Why no funds?
According to experts, Trillions of dollars must be invested in clean energy technology to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting average global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levelsWorld Bank took this decision to help countries meet the greenhouse gas-curbing pledges they had made in support of the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming.
What is Paris Agreement 2015?
Introduction
The Paris Agreement or Paris climate agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to deal with greenhouse gas emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance starting in the year 2020. The Paris deal is the world's first comprehensive climate agreement
Members of the Agreement
The language of the agreement was negotiated by representatives of 196 parties at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC in Paris and adopted by consensus on 12 December 2015. As of November 2017, 195 UNFCCC members have signed the agreement, and 170 have become party to it.
Aim of the agreement
The Agreement is to respond to the global climate change threat by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Countries' Roles
Each country determines, plans and regularly reports its own contribution it should make in order to mitigate global warming There is no mechanism to force a country to set a specific target by a specific date, but each target should go beyond previously set targets.
In July 2017, France announced a five-year plan to ban all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040 as part of the Paris Agreement. France would no longer use coal to produce electricity after 2022 and that up to €4 billion will be invested in boosting energy efficiency
Nationally Determined Contributions
The contributions that each individual country should make in order to achieve the worldwide goal are determined by all countries individually and called "nationally determined contributions" (NDCs). Article 3 requires them to be "ambitious", "represent a progression over time" and set "with the view to achieving the purpose of this Agreement".
