World Bank Funds Coal Plants Despite Pledges to Fight Global Warming

The World Bank is providing $500 million in loans, guarantees, and investment funds to help build one of the world’s largest coal-fired power plants, despite promises by its president, Robert Zoellick, to “significantly step up our assistance” to combat climate change. The bank’s support is crucial to the $4.14 billion Tata Ultra Mega power plant project in western India, which experts say will become the world’s 42nd largest greenhouse gas emitter, producing more CO2 than the entire nation of Tunisia. The bank also is providing $300 million in funds for the privatization of the coal-powered Calaca power plant in the Philippines. Bank officials have said that while the bank strongly supports a move to renewable energy, its major goal is alleviating poverty, in part by giving people in developing countries access to electricity produced by fossil fuels. Last year, the bank provided $2.3 billion in loans, grants, and investments to fossil fuel-related projects, and $1 billion to renewable energy projects.