(JD Supra, Sausalito, 5 November 2024) The Minerals Security Partnership Finance Network (MSPFN), a joint financing body, was announced by the United States, the European Commission, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Australia, and nine other nations on 23 September 2024 at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The new financing initiative aims to enhance collaboration amongst export credit agency and development finance institutions to support financing for critical mineral projects. The MSPFN is a US-led financing initiative that stems from the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP); a framework established in 2022 by 14 governments and the European Commission to advance, diversify, secure, and sustain supply chains for CMs. The MSPFN was created to strengthen cooperation and promote information exchange and co-financing among participating institutions.
G7
Critical Minerals Security Partnership may not be enough for Australia
(Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Canberra, 25 September 2024) Fourteen countries this week took what they intended to be a big step in countering China’s dominance of critical minerals supply. But it’s unclear whether the initiative will restore competitiveness of Australian production and investment in the face of massive subsidies offered by China and, in response, the United States. The Minerals Security Partnership, a coalition of 14 countries, including the G7, Australia, India, South Korea, and European Union members, announced plans for a finance network to boost investment in critical metals. The initiative will tap into domestic export credit agencies and development finance institutions to attract private sector capital to produce, extract, process and recycle critical minerals, especially in riskier markets. The partnership seeks to lower investment risks and drive global supply chain resilience by providing guarantees and concessional financing. Australia’s economic prosperity and national security are intrinsically linked to the exploitation of its abundant resources, notably critical minerals. These minerals are the new oil. They’re the building blocks for everything from emerging technology to energy transition. Although Australia has vast reserves, its critical mineral mining and processing are still threatened by the intense subsidy war between the US and China.
Meeting Statement – Heads of G7 ECAs
(SACE, Rome, 19 April 2024) The leaders of official export credit agencies from the G7 nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the USA – met on April 16th, in Tokyo, hosted by Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI), to discuss recent business trends and challenges. In the light of the increasing global geopolitical risks, the G7 ECA Heads have reaffirmed their role in protecting and promoting international trade and investment, and have recognised the importance of risk management for ECAs. The G7 ECA Heads recognise the need to enhance resilience to the impacts of climate change and to support businesses in responding to global climate issues. Acknowledging the need for urgency, the G7 ECA Heads agree to continue to proactively engage in a review of climate-related provisions under the framework of the OECD Arrangement and the Common Approaches for Officially Supported Export Credits and Environmental and Social Due Diligence. The G7 ECA Heads acknowledge the important role that ECAs continue to play in supporting their own exports and foreign investments and confirm that now, a variety of roles are expected, including promoting inclusive and sustainable trade and investment in developing countries, emerging markets and more established economies, and contributing to the realization of various policy agendas of their respective governments. In particular the G7 ECA Heads underlined their commitment to supporting Ukraine and reaffirmed their role in mobilizing private sector funds, and to continue this dialogue at the next Ukraine Recovery Conference on 11 June 2024 in Berlin.
JBIC financing for two gas power projects in Mexico would violate the G7 agreement
(JACSES, Tokyo, 30 January 2024) The Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society notes that two gas-fired combined cycle power projects in Mexico are now under consideration for financing by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). One is in San Luis Potosi and the other one in Salamanca. When Japanese NGOs asked the consistency of these two projects with the agreement reached at G7 Elmau Summit to end new public financing for fossil fuel energy, JBIC did not provide specific rationale on its judgment that the policy of the Mexican government is consistent with the 1.5 degree target. If JBIC provides support, it is highly likely that it constitutes a violation of the G7 agreement, thus JBIC should stop consideration for financing. JBIC placed these two projects on its list of projects under consideration for financing on November 2, 2023.
The BRICS come of age [But what role for ECAs?]
(Project Syndicate, Cairo, 18 August 2023) by Hippolyte Fofack, Chief Economist and Director of Research at the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank). Given the BRICS’ economic success, more than 40 countries have shown an interest in joining the group and 22 have formally applied for membership. Expansion, trade and investment facilitation will be high on the agenda of the group’s summit scheduled for August 22-24 in Johannesburg. They include many issues on which the bloc’s views diverge from those of the G7, such as sustainable development, global governance reform (especially reform of the IMF), and de-dollarization. An enlarged grouping could deepen trade and settlement in local currencies, accelerate de-dollarization, and lead the transition to a more multipolar world. The economic potential of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, the group – called the BRICS since the addition of South Africa – contributes more to global GDP (in purchasing-power-parity terms) than the G7. Since 2014, Russia’s trade with G7 countries has fallen by more than 36%, owing to unprecedented Western sanctions, while its trade with the other BRICS has increased by more than 121%. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that China and India alone will generate about half of global growth this year. With geopolitical tensions running high, and the weaponization of the dollar for national-security purposes continuing to escalate, the BRICS have taken on new significance, offering trade diversion and other relief to weaken the effectiveness of sanctions and fast-tracking the transition to a multipolar world. Read the Summit Declaration here.
Heads of G7 Export Credit Agencies – Meeting Statement
(UK Government, Rome, 19 May 2023) The leaders of official Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) of G7 Countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and the United States of America – met on May 16th in Rome, hosted by SACE, the Italian ECA. The meeting provided a framework for an open and constructive exchange around topics of relevance for the financing of global trade, from a practical and policy perspective. Discussions centred on recent business trends in the ECA industry, new instruments implemented to address the challenges currently faced by national exporters, policies and initiatives related to climate, as well as on joint support for the reconstruction process in Ukraine:
Ahead of OECD negotiations, report shows OECD export finance props up fossil fuels, blocking energy transition
(Price of Oil, Hiroshima, 20 May 2023) G7 Leaders in Hiroshima concluded that there is “an important role” for “increased deliveries of LNG” and that “publicly supported gas investments can be appropriate”, jeopardizing the 1.5ºC warming limit and directly contradicting last year’s G7 commitment to end international public finance for fossil fuels by the end of 2022. The G7 endorsement of increased gas finance comes despite strong opposition. Leading up to the Summit, activists organized over 50 actions in 22 countries to urge Japan and fellow G7 countries to end their support for fossil fuels and to stop driving the expansion of gas and other fossil-based technologies such as ammonia co-firing in coal-fired power plants. In their Leaders’ Communique, the G7 claim that “they are steadfast in their commitment to … keeping a limit of 1.5ºC global temperature rise within reach”. A true commitment to 1.5°C, however, requires the G7 to explicitly exclude continued investments in new upstream gas projects and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) infrastructure. Today’s G7 endorsement of increased gas investments came after a push from Japan and Germany, with Japan using its G7 Presidency to also promote other fossil fuel-based technologies such as hydrogen, ammonia and CCS. The G7 play a central role in enabling the global buildout of LNG infrastructure.
Heads of G7 Export Credit Agencies Express Support for Ukraine
(UKEF, London, 22 January 2023) Acknowledging the G7 Leaders’ Statement on Support for Ukraine, as heads of the official export credit agency (ECA) schemes of the G7 nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America – we wish to express our ongoing support for Ukraine and for its reconstruction efforts and our unwavering solidarity with the Ukrainian people for as long as it takes. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the G7 ECAs have remained open for underwriting Ukrainian business opportunities in solidarity with Ukraine during this difficult time. We also continue to participate in the wider dialogue with other ECAs and multilateral institutions, including within international fora such as the Berne Union, to find ways to enhance cooperation, share information and leverage our collective platforms to bring visibility to and stimulate support for Ukraine.
CSOs condemn G7 for caving in to gas industry – weakening pledge to end finance for fossil fuels
(Oil Change International, Washington, 27 June 2022) German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other G7 leaders watered down a commitment made in May by their energy, climate and environment ministers to end international public finance for fossil fuels by the end of this year, drawing a swift rebuke from climate and development campaigners. Six out of seven G7 members had already adopted a near-identical commitment to shift public finance at the 2021 UN climate conference. The ministerial commitment was notable for adding Japan as Japan is the 2nd largest provider of international public finance for fossil fuels, pouring $11 billion into dirty overseas fossil fuel projects each year. The G7 leaders’ statement adds new loopholes to the commitment and says that “with a view to accelerating the phase out of our dependency on Russian energy … investment in [LNG] is necessary” and that “publicly supported investment in the gas sector can be appropriate as a temporary response”. Soon after the G7 ministerials, signals already emerged of countries backsliding on their commitment. Japan claimed it could continue financing upstream oil and gas projects despite the G7 pledge, and Germany’s Chancellor Scholz stated that Germany wants to “intensively” pursue gas projects in Senegal.
G-7 rolls out answer to China’s Belt and Road initiative
(Politico, Washington, 27 June 2022) Biden and other G-7 leaders meeting in Germany on Sunday pledged to provide $600 billion in public and private financing for developing country infrastructure projects over the next five years, in a move aimed at countering China’s growing global economic clout. The United States will “mobilize” $200 billion of the public and private capital for the Partnership for Global Infrastructure (PGII), the G-7’s answer to China’s multitrillion-dollar Belt-and-Road infrastructure initiative that Beijing launched back in 2013. It is not clear what portion of the US $200bn support will come from EXIM.
