The UN secretary-general has urged development banks to stop backing fossil fuel projects, after a report found the World Bank has invested $US12 billion ($A17 billion) in the sector since the 2015 Paris agreement to combat climate change.
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged a coalition of finance ministers and economic policymakers from dozens of countries to ensure development banks end fossil fuel investments and boost renewable energy.
"We need speed, scale, and decisive leadership," Guterres said in a video message to a virtual meeting of the group on Monday.
Environmental campaigners have for years tried to prevent the oil, coal and natural gas industry from producing dangerous levels of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change by persuading commercial banks to stop lending them money.
Now the world's state-backed development banks, whose support is often crucial in determining whether projects in developing countries go ahead, are also facing growing calls to starve the industry of finance.
Earlier on Monday, a report by Berlin-based environmental group Urgewald said the World Bank had invested more than $US12 billion ($A17 billion) in fossil fuels since the Paris accord.
Of that figure, $US10.5b ($A14.6b) was direct finance for new projects.
That put the World Bank far ahead of other development banks in supporting the sector, said Urgewald senior adviser Heike Mainhardt, who wrote the report.
With the world already on track to produce far more fossil fuels than would be compatible with temperature goals agreed in Paris, the report questioned why the World Bank would back increased oil and natural gas production in countries such as Mexico, Brazil and Mozambique.
The World Bank said the report gave a "distorted and unsubstantiated view", adding that it had committed nearly $US9.4b ($A13b) to finance renewable energy and energy efficiency in developing countries from 2015-19.
The bank also said the report ignored its mandate to help around 789 million people living without electricity, mostly in rural Africa and Asia.
But Mainhardt said the bank's support for fossil fuels was hindering a transition to cleaner energy needed to achieve the Paris accord's goal of avoiding catastrophic climate change.
"It's so misleading for them to act like they are a champion of the climate when they really are such a huge part of the problem," Mainhardt said.
"Because the World Bank keeps giving billions in public assistance, that distorts the market for fossil fuels, it slows down the energy transition."
Australian Associated Press
