Record sums were invested last year in coal power – the most carbon intensive form of energy on the planet – by the World Bank, despite international commitments to slash the carbon emissions blamed for climate change. The World Bank said this week that a total of US$3.4bn  – or a quarter of all funding for energy projects – was spent in the year to June 2010 helping to build new coal-fired power stations. Over the same period the bank also spent $1bn  on looking and drilling for oil and gas.