A new report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) draws attention to the fact that rich countries are increasingly using aid money to advance their energy interests in Africa.The report argues that: “There are very clear signals that security concerns and energy politics are again shaping the policy debates on aid and development; another scramble for African resources, however, is no more likely to generate a successful development path than in the past.” Quite right! Using aid money to subsidize the expansion of the international oil industry is a perversion of international assistance and UNCTAD should be congratulated for raising the issue.

Congressional Democrats have introduced legislation that would bar some international companies from receiving U.S. government contracts if they continued to do business with Sudan. The bill is an attempt to put pressure on Sudan to do more to end the genocide in Darfur. Rep. Barbara Lee told reporters: “This bill is designed to wash the blood off our federal contracts.’’ Oil companies such as the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation are among those that would be affected by the legislation. Sudan’s oil has fueled instability within the country and has frustrated efforts to solve the conflict in Darfur. Sudan is one of China’s key sources of oil in the region and many believe that this largely explains China’s reluctance to take a strong stand on Darfur in the Security Council.

Oil Change International released a report today at the World Bank Annual Meetings in Singapore calling on the World Bank to stop using aid money to subsidize the expansion of the international oil industry - what we call “End Oil Aid”. Read the Reuters story here.

The report, produced in cooperation with a number of partner organizations, is a response to World Bank’s proposed Clean Energy and Investment Framework. The Bank is trying to increase its involvement in the fight against climate change but it is floundering in the contradictions of its own energy policy and it is proposing solutions that fail to focus on overcoming energy poverty for the world’s poorest people. Instead, many of the Bank’s proposals are essentially “business as usual”, which means more support for large hydro power and conventional energy. They also want to increase support for “clean” coal and they completely ignore the fact that the Bank and other international financial institutions are pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into some of the most profitable oil companies in the world.

In general it is a good thing that the Bank is finally acknowledging that climate change is harming the world’s most impoverished countries. Civil society organizations have fought for this recognition for a long time and it would be great to see more aid money put into promoting new renewables and energy efficiency to help countries transition away from their dependence on oil and other fossil fuels. Unfortunately, the Bank is still suffering under the illusion that it can actively subsidize fossil fuels and effectively fight climate change at the same time!

We are saying that aid budgets should go to investments that will help lay the groundwork for the development of meaningful alternatives to our addiction to oil and other fossil fuels, rather than propping up the fossil fuel industry.