Welcome to the Urgewald media center

Urgewald is thrilled to be among the 2024 finalists for the prestigious Keeling Curve Prize announced by The Global Warming Mitigation Project. The award committee recognizes the top climate innovators in their respective categories. These organizations represent the forefront of global efforts to combat climate change.

Following the 15th annual publication of Banking on Climate Chaos (BOCC), Barclays issued a response to the report. As authors of the BOCC report, we wanted to note important clarifications with regard to the BOCC methodology and approach.

Since the Paris Agreement in 2016, the world’s 60 largest private banks financed fossil fuels with USD $6.9 trillion. Nearly half – $3.3 trillion – went towards fossil fuel expansion. In 2023, banks financed $705 billion in fossil fuel financing with $347 billion going to fossil fuel expansion alone.

2021 was the year in which the International Energy Agency issued its Net Zero by 2050 scenario, underlining the need for a rapid transition out of coal. It was the year in which COP26 in Glasgow agreed to accelerate the phase-down of coal and in which commercial banks launched the Net Zero Banking Alliance. “2021 should have been a turning point. Yet our data shows that banks are still injecting hundreds of billions of dollars into the industry, which is our climate’s worst enemy,” says Katrin Ganswindt, head of financial research at Urgewald. 

Today the World Bank released a scandalous internal investigation of child sexual abuse allegations at private schools funded by its private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Although World Bank President Ajay Banga has expressed contrition, the IFC’s official management response fails to offer meaningful remedy to the survivors of abuse that it turned a blind eye to for almost a decade.  

Accountability Counsel, Inclusive Development International,  Gender Action and Urgewald urge Executive Directors to reject the IFC's response and demand justice for child sexual abuse victims.