100 signatures reached
To: KfW - the biggest national development bank world wide and owned by the German government
No more fossil fuels, no more KfW funding for new coal projects!
1. Immediately freeze any new investments/loans in fossil fuels beginning with coal and Ptolemaida V.
Why is this important?
Whilst international climate negotiations stagnate, CO2 emissions continue to rise dramatically. The burning and use of coal as an energy source is one of the biggest contributors to human induced climate change. The International Energy Association has consistently warned that no more coal power plants should be built, and whilst some banks - including the World Bank and the European Investment Bank - have publicly stated they will reduce their investments in coal, the KfW (Kreditanstalt für Wideraufbau) has not made this pledge.
Investments in coal and fossil fuels contribute to the “carbon bubble effect”: research shows that fossil fuel companies’ raw materials reserves contain about five times more CO2 than the levels of permitted emissions in the atmosphere if global temperature rise is to be limited to 2°C. This is why a movement is coming together to demand that the investments of our public institutions - such as universities, pension funds and banks - should not be invested in fossil fuel companies. This is the divestment movement! It’s happening here already in Germany and is under-way in Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom too. The big success of the Fossil Free campaign in the USA, Australia and New Zealand shows that we are on the right track.
To build on the momentum of the Fossil Free Europe Tour in Berlin, we want to be the first to get KfW onto the right tracks. Whilst KfW publicly encourages energy efficiency, renewable energy and environmental and climate change projects, the bank actively contradicts itself through direct involvement in the construction of nine coal power plants, two coal mines and several coal infrastructure projects globally. And now KfW is currently deciding on a loan for the new V Ptolemais lignite power plant in Greece.
This is why we need to act now:
Joining with klima-allianz deutschland and urgewald e.V., we are calling on KfW to stop future investments in coal projects, beginning with Ptolemais V.
We urge you to: sign this petition to KfW to demand they stop investing in coal. Go Fossil Free!