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.