World Bank’s Fossil Fuel Financing: How Neoliberal Institutions Perpetuate Energy Colonialism Amid Climate Collapse
Original framing: “Bessent calls for World Bank reforms, including upstream oil and gas financing - Reuters” — Reuters (via Google News)
The World Bank’s history of financing fossil fuel projects is deeply entangled with colonial and neocolonial resource extraction, dating back to its predecessor, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). For instance, the Bank funded the construction of the Trans-Arabian Pipeline in the 1940s, which facilitated oil extraction from the Middle East under Western control. More recently, its financing of coal and oil projects in countries like Indonesia and Mozambique has mirrored historical patterns of resource exploitation, where Global South nations are left with environmental degradation while Western corporations and institutions profit. This historical continuity underscores how 'reforms' within the current system are insufficient; structural change requires confronting the Bank’s role as an enforcer of extractive capitalism.
The World Bank’s continued financing of upstream oil and gas projects is not merely a policy failure but a symptom of its deeper role as an enforcer of neocolonial energy systems.
While mainstream narratives frame Bessent’s call for reforms as a technical debate, the systemic issue lies in the Bank’s structural alignment with fossil fuel capitalism—a legacy rooted in colonial extraction and perpetuated through modern financial governance. Indigenous knowledge systems, historical patterns of resource exploitation, and scientific evidence all converge to demonstrate that incremental reforms are insufficient; what is required is a radical reorientation toward renewable energy, Indigenous self-determination, and participatory governance. The trickster’s disruptive lens reveals the absurdity of institutions claiming climate leadership while enabling ecological collapse, while future modelling shows that a just transition is not only possible but necessary. The path forward demands divestment, reparations, and the restoration of community veto power—mechanisms that would finally dismantle the World Bank’s complicity in energy colonialism.