Clean energy finance passes fossil fuels for the first time, but little reaches low-income countries

International public finance for clean energy has passed fossil fuel finance for the first time in a dataset tracked by two advocacy groups, though most of the clean energy money is not reaching the poorest countries.

Oil Change International and Friends of the Earth U.S. released the analysis on October 14, during the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings, according to the groups’ joint announcement. Averaged over 2023 to 2025, finance from G20 governments and multilateral development banks reached $52.7 billion a year for clean energy, against at least $36.3 billion a year for fossil fuels.

The figures come from a factsheet titled Tipping the Scales: Assessing G20 and MDB International Finance Institutions’ Energy Finance. It covers the export credit agencies, development finance institutions and national development banks of G20 countries, along with the major multilateral development banks. The groups also account for domestic subsidies for carbon capture and storage and for hydrogen.

“This new dataset represents a tipping point,” said Claire O’Manique, a public finance researcher at Oil Change International. “Wealthy Governments must move first and fastest to phase out fossil fuels at home,” she said.

The groups say the shift has limits. Only 2 percent of the clean energy finance supports low-income countries. Four countries, Canada, Japan, the United States and Italy, account for 75 percent of all G20 fossil fuel finance. Kate DeAngelis, economic policy deputy director at Friends of the Earth U.S., said that “laggards, including the United States and Japan, are continuing to prop up the fossil fuel industry.”

Multilateral development banks provided an average of $3.4 billion a year in direct support for fossil fuel projects, according to the release, which notes that some support flows through channels that are harder to track. The World Bank has provided at least $19 billion in fossil fuel finance since the 2016 Paris Agreement, more than any other multilateral development bank. In June 2026, the World Bank Group backtracked on its commitment to deliver 45 percent of its finance as climate finance, the groups said.

Alongside the factsheet, the organizations published what they describe as the first public database of carbon capture and storage and hydrogen subsidies. It tracks $79 billion in government subsidies, which the groups say largely support the fossil fuel industry.

The release does not name every bank or country in the dataset. The full list is on the groups’ energy finance data site, and the findings reflect the two organizations’ own accounting rather than an official government or World Bank tally.

The release was issued during the World Bank and IMF annual meetings, where the groups called on wealthy governments to phase out fossil fuels at home. The comparison covers only international public finance from G20 governments and the multilateral development banks. It does not measure overall energy investment, which includes private spending.

Over 2023 to 2025, clean energy finance in the dataset averaged $16.4 billion a year more than fossil fuel finance. Two percent of the clean energy total went to low-income countries.