Demand the United States stop its support for fossil fuel projects!

Government funding for fossil fuels adds up to well over $5,000,000,000,000 annually -- yes, that is $5 TRILLION -- worldwide. And all that money backs Big Oil projects that worsen pollution.

The oil, gas, and coal industries poison communities, harm wildlife, and drive climate chaos using your tax dollars.

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Dear Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, 
CC: Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry

In accordance with President Biden’s January 27 Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, I urge you to quickly release Guidance to end all U.S public finance and support for fossil fuel expansion overseas, including gas, through international financial institutions in which the US participates, like the IMF.

As a global “crisis institution,” the IMF is well positioned to play a singular role in the Covid-19 pandemic, supporting countries through crisis lending, tackling debt and recovery policy actions. As more countries turn to the IMF for help in coping with COVID-19, it is imperative the IMF does not further entrench fossil fuel dependency around the world. However, despite the rhetoric by the IMF in support of a green recovery, the IMF’s COVID-19 era loans have failed to boost green recovery policies, and have also called for austerity measures to be implemented once the pandemic crisis subsides, limiting the resources that countries will have to spend on a just and green recovery. In addition, the IMF’s policy advice during the Covid-19 pandemic recovery continues to include public incentives for fossil fuel investments.

This is a continuation of a troubling history of the IMF propping up fossil fuel expansion and dependency around the world through its lending, surveillance, and capacity building activities. Aside from the austerity measures it is so well known for, the IMF has been found to attach conditions in its lending to several countries that support new tax breaks for fossil fuels producers. The IMF has also enabled new legislation in countries around the world to facilitate public finance of fossil fuel projects. Its economic and financial analyses have legitimized happy-go-lucky investing in fossil fuels around the world and promoted overoptimistic assumptions of fossil fuel revenues expected under business-as-usual scenarios.

This fossil fueled lending and advice needs to stop.

As the largest shareholder in the IMF, the United States government should use its “voice and vote” to move the institution to “do no harm”, and to help countries transition to clean, just and prosperous development pathways – not continue to finance and support harmful, risky and unjust fossil fuel development.

I call on you to end immediately, once and for all, U.S. support for fossil fuels through the IMF.

Sincerely,
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