(Bloomberg, 17 September 2024) A group of developed nations will make a new push to resolve differences amid fading prospects for a deal to restrict funding of foreign oil and gas projects by their export credit agencies. Restricting export credit agencies is seen as a potentially important tool in curbing the flow of financing to fossil fuels projects. Group of 20 nations offered more than $30 billion for such ventures in 2022, led by Canada and South Korea, according to data compiled by Oil Change International, a climate advocacy group.
Oil & Gas
Rich countries could raise $5tn of climate finance a year, study says
(Guardian, London, 24 September 2024) Rich countries could raise five times the money that poor countries are demanding in climate finance, through windfall taxes on fossil fuels, ending harmful subsidies and a wealth tax on billionaires, research has shown. Developing nations are asking for at least $1tn (£750bn) a year of public funds to help them cut greenhouse gases and cope with the impacts of extreme weather. Research by the pressure group Oil Change International, published on Tuesday, shows that rich countries could generate $5tn a year from a combination of wealth and corporate taxes, and a crackdown on fossil fuels. A wealth tax on billionaires could generate $483bn globally, while a financial transaction tax could raise $327bn. Taxes on sales of big technology, arms and luxury fashion would be another $112bn, and redistributing 20% of public military spending would be worth $454bn if implemented around the world. Stopping subsidies [from OECD ECAs?] to fossil fuels would free up $270bn of public money in the rich world, and about $846bn globally. Taxes on fossil fuel extraction would be worth $160bn in the rich world, and $618bn globally.
Shifting and unlocking trillions for a just energy transition
(Oil Change International, Washington, 24 September 2024) Rich countries can mobilize well over $5 trillion a year for climate action at home and abroad by ending fossil fuel handouts, making big polluters pay, and changing unfair global financial rules. This briefing, endorsed by 36 civil society organizations, is published as global leaders meet at Climate Week NYC and the United Nations General Assembly ahead of COP29, where leaders must agree on a new global climate finance target (NCQG). This target must be at least $1 trillion annually in grants and grant-equivalent finance and is essential for countries to deliver last year’s commitment to transition away from fossil fuels. Only strong finance targets will unlock strong national climate plans (NDCs) due in 2025 that phase out fossil fuels. A new Oil Change briefing reveals how governments in North America and Europe are preparing to waste hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on these ineffective technologies, further benefiting the fossil fuel industry, despite their record profits. They add that carbon capture has a 50-year record of failure and ask why governments [and ECAs] are throwing billions of dollars at it?
Deutsche Bank & ECAs finance $3.1 billion Indonesian fossil fuel project
(Risk Net, London, 26 September 2024) Last year, Deutsche Bank was selected as sole hedge co-ordinator and hedge arranger for a landmark $3.1 billion project-financing deal in Indonesia. Deutsche Bank declined to say who the client was, only that it was a processing and petrochemical company that wanted to modernise and expand an oil and gas refinery in the country. The project is part of Jakarta’s strategy for reforming the country’s oil and gas sector. Indonesia’s economy remains heavily dependent on oil and gas, and yet for several years has imported far more of the commodity than it has produced. The $3.1 billion project-financing deal was one of the largest ever done in Indonesia, involving three export credit agencies and 22 commercial lenders.
Out With the Old, Slow With the New
(International Institute for Sustainable Development, Winnipeg, 27 August 2024) Countries are underdelivering on fossil-to-clean energy finance pledge. This report analyzes the progress made by Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP) signatories on shifting international public finance away from fossil fuels and into clean energy. It finds that although significant progress has been made on cutting finance for fossil fuels, signatories are not increasing renewable investment at the same scale. At the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) in November 2021, 39 countries and public finance institutions signed the Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP), a joint commitment to end international public finance for fossil fuels by the end of 2022 and prioritize international public finance for clean energy. To realize the CETP’s transformative potential, new policies are needed to boost clean energy financing. All high-income signatories need to review and update their policies! The Financial Times notes that a group of more than 30 countries cut public funding for fossil fuel projects overseas by up to $15bn last year, a report has found, although the US has continued to pour billions into oil and gas finance.
JBIC signs credit line of up to US$3 billion for Adnoc
(The Asset, Hong Kong, 10 July 2024) Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) has signed a general agreement with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) to provide a credit line of up to US$3 billion. The Japanese export credit agency will contribute US$$1.8 billion. The proceeds will fund projects related to decarbonization and energy transition to be implemented by Adnoc or its subsidiaries in the United Arab Emirates or internationally. Adnoc, an energy company wholly owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, aims to achieve net zero by 2045. It promotes renewable energy, hydrogen and ammonia as fuel sources, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and other green energy initiatives. According to JBIC, Abu Dhabi has been a stable and important supplier of crude oil to Japan for more than 40 years, and as such, is a strategic partner for Japan’s energy resource strategy. In addition, Abu Dhabi has high potential in the field of decarbonization and energy transition as it has abundant resources for renewable energy and subterranean structures suitable for CCS.
Campaigners Increasingly Targeting Financial Backers with Lawsuits Against Fossil Fuel Funders
(DeSmog, Seattle, 26 June 2024) Campaigners are increasingly taking out lawsuits against the funders of fossil fuels and other climate-harming activities, according to a new report. In its annual review of climate litigation, published June 26, the London School of Economics and Political Science’s (LSE) Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment identifies a modest but growing number of lawsuits challenging the flow of finance to projects that worsen climate change. In total, 33 cases that challenge the flow of funding have been recorded since academics began keeping track nine years ago. Six were filed in 2023. In one significant recent case, human rights and environmental NGO Jubilee Australia challenged Australia’s export credit agency Export Finance Australia and the $7 billion AUD Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility for giving taxpayer-subsidized finance to risky new fossil fuel projects and related ventures that would otherwise not go ahead. Jubilee Australia wants to force the public bodies involved to disclose impact assessments for these investments. French bank BNP Paribas also recently said it would stop funding new gas projects as the risk of litigation rises. Campaigners, including Oxfam France, had sued the bank for financing fossil fuels in the first-ever climate-related lawsuit against a commercial bank. However, activists noted that BNP cut out direct loans, and it still supports oil and gas through indirect loans to other involved companies and by underwriting bonds. A previous claim from 2020 against Australian banking group ANZ confirmed that climate change was relevant to responsible business practices under the OECD guidelines, but the organization did not require companies to divest from fossil fuels. The OECD guidelines are just one example of “soft law” – agreements that are influential but not legally binding – groups use to try to push corporations and their funders in a greener direction.
EDC undermines climate commitments yet again with massive loan renewal for Enbridge
(EcoJustice, Vancouver, 24 July 2024) Export Development Canada (EDC) has renewed a $200- to $300-million loan to oil and gas giant Enbridge Inc., despite environmental organizations raising the alarm about the serious climate consequences and human rights concerns of this financing. EDC is a federal Crown corporation and Canada’s official export credit agency – it has also been a prolific funder of fossil fuels. Just days prior to EDC signing the deal, environmental organizations submitted an analysis to EDC asserting that corporate financing to Enbridge Inc., which has significant plans to expand fossil fuel infrastructure, does not align with the Crown corporation’s climate commitments, nor with international obligations to phase out fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In the analysis submitted by Ecojustice on behalf of Above Ground (a project of MakeWay), the Center for International Environmental Law, Environmental Defence Canada, Oil Change International and Stand.earth, major concerns about EDC’s financing of Enbridge are raised. Their submission to EDC highlights the dire impacts of climate change while also citing public reports of human rights risks and violations, and active legal challenges involving Enbridge’s projects from Indigenous groups, impacted communities, and an Attorney General. The submission calls on EDC to examine the implications of continuing to fund fossil fuel companies like Enbridge.
Swiss ECA faces backlash after climate policy U-turn
(Global Trade Review, London, 17 July 2024) Climate campaigners have accused Switzerland’s export credit agency (ECA) of “watering down” its climate commitments, after it scrapped a pledge to end all support for the fossil fuel sector. Swiss Export Risk Insurance (Serv) was one of numerous public finance institutions that pledged to end direct support for the unabated fossil fuel energy sector by the end of 2022, part of a landmark declaration on climate change agreed at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow. But in an updated policy finalised in May this year, Serv has removed that commitment. Support is still unavailable for coal or oil, or for upstream projects, but midstream gas projects are no longer prohibited. Even if a project does not meet Paris Agreement goals, Serv can still offer insurance if it is deemed in the “economic, foreign, trade and development policy interests of Switzerland”, the policy states.
UAE’s ALTÉRRA invests in fund backing fossil gas despite “climate solutions” pledge
(Climate Change News, Broadstairs UK, 27 July 2024) As world leaders gathered in Dubai at the start of COP28 last December, the United Arab Emirates dropped a surprise headline-grabbing announcement. The host nation of the UN talks promised to put $30 billion into a new climate fund aimed at speeding up the energy transition and building climate resilience, especially in the Global South. ALTÉRRA was billed as the world’s largest private investment vehicle to “focus entirely on climate solutions”. COP28 President Sultan Al-Jaber hailed its launch as “a defining moment” for creating a new era of international climate finance. Yet four months later, one of the initial funds ALTÉRRA backed with a $300-million commitment agreed to buy a major fossil gas pipeline in North America, Climate Home has discovered. Climate Home’s findings “confirm our worst fears”. “The ALTÉRRA fund uses a masquerade of green progress while funnelling investment into fossil fuel pipelines and gas projects, which are the biggest causes of the climate crisis,”
