International financial institutions fund environmentally and socially destructive fossil fuel projects, which negatively impact communities worldwide and contribute to climate change. Friends of the Earth is working to reform policy on the extractive industries - oil, gas, and mining - at the World Bank and other international institutions. We are also battling international institutions on their climate change policies through litigation.

World Bank President James Wolfensohn agreed to commission an “Extractive Industries Review” September 2000, in response to international pressure from Friends of the Earth and others.  Bank-financed fossil fuel and mining projects have been plagued by significant environmental and social problems and fail to alleviate poverty.  The final, groundbreaking EIR report released November 2003, reflects many of the recommendations Friends of the Earth has advocated and could significantly change the course of future World Bank lending in the oil, gas and mining sectors.

Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the City of Boulder, Colo. filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco on behalf of their members and citizens who are victims of global warming. The suit has been filed against two U.S. government agencies – the Export Import Bank (ExIm) and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). ExIm and OPIC are taxpayer funded agencies that provide financing and loans to U.S. corporations for overseas projects that commercial banks deem too risky. Find out more at: www.climatelawsuit.org