[Greens-Media] FW: GREENS WELCOME WORLD BANK DECISION TO OFFLOAD COAL

[Klug, Georgie (Sen C. Milne)]

GREENS WELCOME WORLD BANK DECISION TO OFFLOAD COAL

The Australian Greens have welcomed reports the World Bank will no longer fund coal-fired power stations in poor countries.

This comes on top of the International Energy Agency recently saying that two thirds of the world's coal must stay in the ground to avoid a two degrees rise in average temperatures that would leave millions of people trapped in poverty.

"The World Bank's mission is to assist developing nations out of poverty and part of this solution is to address global warming," Greens Leader Senator Christine Milne

"Climate change will be a major barrier to development  in many parts of the world because it will  exacerbate water and food shortages, extreme weather events and a wide range of diseases.

"The primacy of coal as the world's main fuel for electricity generation is clearly coming to an end. Better late than never.

"The Greens call upon other multilateral lending institutions, such as the Asian Development Bank, to follow the World Bank's lead.

"We also reiterate our call for the Future Fund to divest itself of coal assets.

"Fossil fuel investments account for about three per cent of the Future Fund's assets so replacing coal with less risky investments would not only be possible but potentially more profitable.

"As Professor Lord Stern said recently: 'investing in companies that rely solely or heavily on constantly replenishing reserves of fossil fuels is becoming a very risky decision'.

"Our Future Fund should not be backing risky investments with taxpayers' money."