UK Government loaned £1.7bn for overseas fossil fuel projects despite commitments
Wed 07 January 2015
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The UK provided £1.7bn in loans to fossil fuel projects around the world despite promising to withdraw financial support from such schemes, an analysis of loans made by the UK’s export credit agency showed.
The report, covered by The Guardian and based on analysis by Greenpeace, says that Gazprom in Russia, Brazil’s state-owned oil company and petrochemical companies in Saudi Arabia are among the companies benefiting from the funding which has been committed over the course of the current Parliament.
Greenpeace says that the UK Export Finance (UKEF) deals appear not to comply with the 2010 coalition agreement, in which the Conservatives and Lib Dems pledged to clamp down on funding for fossil fuel operations abroad.
The financing, they say, is designed to help British companies involved in the projects.
Will McCallum, policy adviser at Greenpeace UK, said: “The loophole allowing UK Export Finance to continue funding highly polluting infrastructure, and the extraction of fuels we urgently need to leave in the ground, is one that must be closed if the government is to honour its international commitment to a 2 degrees C limit.
Greenpeace says that the rate of funding for fossil fuel projects around the world appears to have speeded up in the last financial year, with around £1bn given to such operations in the 2013-14 financial year.
A spokeswoman for UKEF, reported in The Guardian, said it reviewed environmental and social issues before approving financing.
She said: “UKEF would take dirty fossil-fuel energy production to refer to projects producing pollution in excess of international environmental standards. UKEF adheres to the standards set out in the OECD Common Approaches and will normally refuse support for exports to projects that do not meet those standards."
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