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Press Release

CSOs say that Export Finance for Future (E3F) countries must deliver on pledge to stop funding fossil fuels

Today, a month before ministers from Export Finance for Future (E3F) countries gather to discuss progress on aligning their export finance with climate objectives, CSOs are sending letters to urge E3F members to deliver on their stop funding fossils pledge. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Contact:
Nina Pušic, nina[at]priceofoil.org

CSOs say that Export Finance for Future (E3F) countries must deliver on pledge to stop funding fossil fuels
Today, a month before ministers from Export Finance for Future (E3F) countries [1] gather to discuss progress on aligning their export finance with climate objectives, CSOs are sending letters to urge E3F members to deliver on their stop funding fossils pledge. 

Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) are the worst public finance actors on fossil fuels, with G20 ECAs having supported 11 times more in fossil fuels (USD 40.1 billion) than in renewable energy (USD 3.5 billion) from 2018-2020, effective leadership in aligning ECAs with climate goals is desperately needed. The E3F Transparency report outlines that from 2015-2020, E3F members supported almost 175 billion EUR in fossil fuels compared to only 20 billion EUR in renewables. 

The E3F initiative was launched with the objective to align export finance with climate goals and, at last year’s global climate conference in Glasgow, COP26, all ten members signed onto a commitment to end public finance for fossil fuels by the end of 2022, and encourage other countries to follow suit. If countries follow through on their Glasgow commitment this will directly shift USD 28 billion out of fossil fuels and into clean energy and help shift even larger sums of public and private money. 

Yet, since E3F’s inception in 2021 and signing onto the Glasgow Statement, few countries have published updated policies that deliver on this promise. 

The end of 2022 deadline is rapidly approaching and, yet 4 key E3F members, Germany, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands still have not delivered on the commitments they made last year in Glasgow. In the lead-up to the annual E3F conference on 3 November, all E3F members face an important task to ensure their pledges from COP26 are turned into action. 

One month ahead of the E3F conference, CSO letters to each E3F member call on them to, together with other E3F members “collectively launching their policies to end public finance for fossil fuels at the E3F Summit, and using their diplomatic capital to ensure fellow Glasgow Statement signatories follow suit by COP27.”

The CSOs made the following recommendations, detailed further in the letters sent today:

E3F Members should collectively publish their robust, whole-of-government, Glasgow-aligned fossil fuel restrictions policy at the E3F summit in order to build momentum towards COP27;
E3F members who have already implemented the Glasgow Statement should use their diplomatic leverage to encourage other E3F and non-E3F signatories follow suit;
Require that new E3F members sign onto the Glasgow Statement and enact Glasgow-aligned fossil-fuel exclusion policies within one year of joining the initiative

Notes: 

  • [1] Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Denmark.
  • E3F Transparency Reporting was published in May 2022 and discloses the number of fossil fuel and renewable transactions of each E3F member from 2015 – 2020. 
  • “Turning Pledges into Action” is a report published in May 2022 by OCI, IISD, and Tearfund, on how Glasgow Statement signatories can meet their commitment to shift international public finance out of fossil fuels and into clean energy by the end of the year. The report shows that countries have an opportunity to directly shift USD 28 billion in public finance a year out of fossil fuels and into clean energy and  highlights key opportunities and challenges for signatories. It also identifies good practices for policies that exclude international public finance for fossil fuels, and gauges the efforts required to implement the statement in line with the 1.5°C global warming limit. 
  • The Glasgow Statement on International Public Support for the Clean Energy Transition, launched at COP26 and signed by 39 governments and institutions, committed signatories to ending new direct public support for the international unabated fossil fuel energy sector by the end of 2022. By signing the Statement, signatories also promised to drive multilateral negotiations in international bodies, in particular in the OECD, to review, update and strengthen their governance frameworks to align with the Paris Agreement goals
  • “Past Last Call” is OCI and Friends of the Earth US’s latest briefing analyzing G20 public finance figures and trends. It shows that between 2018 and 2020, G20 ECAs provided USD 40.1 billion a year in fossil, while only USD 3.5 billion for renewables.
  • A legal opinion by Professor Jorge E Viñuales from the University of Cambridge and Barrister Kate Cook of Matrix Chambers argues that governments and public finance institutions that continue to finance fossil fuel infrastructure are potentially at risk of climate litigation.

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