Click here to read more about consultations on the Energy Strategy, including a list of upcoming meetings and information about online consultations.
BIC’s Energy Campaign focuses on shifting the World Bank Group's (WBG) energy sector strategy/portfolio away from fossil fuels and toward the financing of renewable energy and energy efficiency. BIC and its partners will utilize the window of opportunity provided by the World Bank Group’s 2009-2011 review of its Energy Sector Strategy to influence and impact World Bank policy to ensure that the WBG supports a global transition to lower-carbon energy production by reducing its fossil fuel lending and increasing financing for renewable energy and energy efficiency.
BIC will also work to ensure that the Climate Investment Funds and Forest Carbon Partnership Facility are governed transparently and consistently with United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) principles and decisions.
Be sure to check out a BIC study that highlights the World Bank’s exacerbation of climate change through its financing of fossil fuels.
Energy Strategy Review Process
The World Bank Group will be reviewing its Energy Strategy in 2010. The Review will open up the existing energy policy framework for discussion and will provide an opportunity to influence the World Bank’s climate change approach. In October 2009, the Bank posted an approach paper to its review process, laying out the significant issues and a timeline for revising the strategy. The approach paper can be found here.
Between January and June 2010, civil society will participate in the first round of consultations, both online and in person. This time will allow concerned groups to raise objections to current policy and suggest alternatives for a future strategy. From this information, the World Bank staff and the Committee on Development Effectiveness will formulate a draft strategy to be released in September. A second round of consultations will be held on the internet only for two months after the release of the draft, followed by a board discussion of the strategy in early 2011, leading to a final policy scheduled to be released in April 2011. The final strategy will likely be 30-40-pages in length. It will be a cross-sectoral review and will include looking at WB initiatives in transport, urban, environment, power, hydro, and agriculture (diesel subsidies and biofuels) sectors.