Oil Change Response to newly launched Export Finance for Future (E3F) coalition

For Immediate Release

April 13, 2021

Contact:

Bronwen Tucker, bronwen@priceofoil.org
Laurie van der Burg, laurie@priceofoil.org

Oil Change Response to newly launched Export Finance for Future (E3F) coalition

PARIS — Tomorrow, France will host the Export Finance for Future conference, launching an Export Finance for Future (E3F) coalition that will adhere to a set of principles to better integrate climate policy objectives in public export finance, alongside Denmark, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. This new coalition will coordinate actions between nations that want to take leadership in aligning export finance with climate goals, and will build momentum to provide political guidance in future multilateral negotiations.

Data from Oil Change International reveals that the G20 public finance institutions provide almost 14 times as much public finance for fossil fuels (USD 40.1 billion) than for clean energy every year, actively hampering the energy transition toward renewables. However, there are early signs of a potential shift. Since restrictions were adopted on export finance for coal-fired power at the OECD in 2015, progress on further restricting export finance for fossil fuels at the OECD level stalled, but last month the UK adopted a policy that puts an immediate end to virtually all new export finance for fossil fuel projects overseas. Other countries, including Denmark and Sweden, have also taken steps to restrict export finance for fossil fuels. France has only decided to phase-out export finance for gas by 2035, lacking the level of ambition shown by the UK.

In reaction to the newly launched coalition, Laurie van der Burg, Senior Campaigner at Oil Change International, said:

“Self-proclaimed export finance leaders will fail to lead unless they put a halt to new export support for oil and gas now, not in 5 or 10 years from now. Even if coal use were phased out over night, the emissions from oil and gas in existing fields alone would push average global temperature rise beyond 1.5°C. The UK has ended export finance for virtually all fossil fuel projects overseas as of last month. That is now the bar for leadership. The science tells us that anything less is insufficient.

“A number of the countries expected to sign the joint climate principles; the UK, which had agreed to finance Mozambique LNG before adopting its new policy, the Netherlands, and France, have all yet failed to withdraw their export support for the gas developments in Mozambique. This is despite the escalation of violence in the region, which is deeply interlinked with the gas projects and has killed over 2,600 people. Their finance will clearly not be ‘for the future’ unless they withdraw.”

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