(Oil Change International, Washington, 7 December 2022) A German government State Secretary has revealed a pipeline of fossil fuel projects that shows a lack of seriousness about keeping Germany’s climate promise. The Government stated that it “currently has ten individual applications for cover under review for the granting of an export credit guarantee for supplies and services to Brazil, Iraq, Uzbekistan, the Dominican Republic and Cuba with a total volume of around one billion euros, which are connected with fossil energy projects.” Despite climate rhetoric, Germany still funding more fossil fuels than renewable energy and provides more government-backed international finance for fossil fuels than Saudi Arabia or Russia. Regine Richter, Energy and Finance Campaigner at Urgewald, said: “The German government needs to understand that you can’t say you favour climate protection and at the same time support massive fossil fuel projects. While the German government is tight-lipped about KfW loan applications, the applications for export finance alone add up to more than €1 billion for fossil fuel projects. This must end if we are to stand a chance to stay within the 1.5°C temperature limit.”
urgewald
CSOs demand reduced OECD ECA support for oil and gas
(Price of Oil, Washington, November 2022) This document signed by 54 international civil society organizations outlines how the OECD Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits can align with the Paris Agreement warming target of 1.5°C by placing restrictions on export support for oil and gas projects and associated infrastructure. These restrictions build on the existing prohibition on coal-fired power, which came into effect 1 January 2022 and was preceded by the coal-fired power sector understanding (CFSU).
NGOs release the 2021 Global Coal Exit List: 1000 companies driving the world towards climate chaos
(Urgewald, Berlin, 6 October 2021) Three weeks before the start of the UN Climate Summit in Glasgow, Urgewald and 40 partner NGOs have released the 2021 update of the “Global Coal Exit List” (GCEL). The GCEL provides detailed data on 1,030 companies and around 1,800 subsidiaries operating along the thermal coal value chain. It is the world’s most comprehensive public database on the coal industry.
New report reveals German government sabotages international energy transition
(Urgewald, Berlin, 15 September 2021) A new report by the environmental organisations urgewald and Deutsche Umwelt-Hilfe (DUH) shows that the German government is supporting climate-damaging oil and gas projects with guarantees worth billions of euros. In the report, the organisations examine climate-damaging oil and gas-related export credit guarantees as well as untied loan guarantees (UFK guarantees) for the period 2015 to May 2021. During this time, the German government approved 144 export guarantees in the oil and gas sector with a total volume of more than 11.75 billion euros via Euler Hermes AG. Of the 28 countries in which oil and gas guarantees were granted, 15 are considered “not free”, according to Freedom House. The report is based on data made available to the two organisations by the German government through a Freedom of Information Act request.
New report reveals: German government sabotages international energy transition through guarantees for oil and gas industry
Berlin 15.09.2021
A new report by the environmental organisations urgewald and Deutsche Umwelt-Hilfe (DUH) shows that the German government is supporting climate-damaging oil and gas projects with guarantees worth billions of euros.
- German government provides support for oil and gas projects through foreign trade promotion
- 144 export guarantees in the oil and gas sector from 2015 to May 2021 worth over 11.75 billion euros
- Majority of projects supported are located in countries where significant human rights violations take place
In the report, the organisations examine climate-damaging oil and gas-related export credit guarantees as well as untied loan guarantees (UFK guarantees) for the period 2015 to May 2021. During this time, the German government approved 144 export guarantees in the oil and gas sector with a total volume of more than 11.75 billion euros via Euler Hermes AG. Of the 28 countries in which oil and gas guarantees were granted, 15 are considered “not free”, according to Freedom House. The report is based on data made available to the two organisations by the German government through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Export guarantees, also known as “Hermes guarantees” because they are processed by Euler Hermes AG, are granted to companies and banks based in Germany to secure their export transactions, often aimed at developing and emerging countries, against payment default. Untied loan guarantees (UFK guarantees) are granted to banks when they are involved in transactions that serve the supply of raw materials to Germany. During the period under review, no UFK guarantees were granted – not because the German government opposed them, but because applications were withdrawn or not submitted after preliminary enquiries.
Gas expert Andy Gheorghiu, author of the report, says: “It is appalling how much the German government is sabotaging the international energy transition with these guarantees by helping to lock-in the continued use of oil and gas internationally. In particular, it is outrageous that the German government continues to classify natural gas as a support-worthy resource in its raw materials strategy, even though its climate-damaging effect has been scientifically proven.”
Sascha Müller-Kraenner, DUH’s national director: “By promoting oil and gas projects abroad, the German government is further fuelling the climate crisis. This does not serve German interests, but puts the future of young people at risk. In order to comply with the Paris climate limits, natural gas and oil production must be stopped as soon as possible. The British government is showing the way: it will no longer give money or support to fossil fuels abroad – an example that the new German government must follow.”
The report by DUH and urgewald lays out a number of problematic projects that were supported with guarantees in the period under review:
- – the Amur petrochemical plant/ Eastern Russia,
- – the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines,
- – the Yamal LNG complex in Russia and
- – the Gas Natural Acu liquefied natural gas terminal and power plant in Brazil.
The report also highlights the Arctic LNG 2 project, another liquefied natural gas project in the Arctic, for which a guarantee application is pending. The procedure is still ongoing. Guarantees for this project have also been applied for in Italy and France. Although the French company Total is one of the main sponsors of the project, President Macron indicated at the World Congress of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) in Marseille at the beginning of September2021 that his government will not support the project for climate and biodiversity reasons.
Regine Richter, energy expert at urgewald, says: “The German government shouldn’t support this project either if it wants to retain a shred of climate credibility. Euler Hermes itself lists the project as having potentially significant environmental, social or human rights impacts. The Arctic LNG 2 production licences for the gas run until 2100, well beyond the time when the world must be climate neutral.”
DUH and urgewald make five key demands on the German government in the report:
- The German government’s raw materials strategy and the criteria for UFK guarantees must be changed so that the supply of fossil fuels (including natural gas) is no longer eligible for support.
- The German government must define clear exclusion criteria for Hermes guarantees for all fossil fuels and the associated value chains.
- Human rights violations and environmental damage – including destruction and pollution of water resources, loss of biodiversity or negative climate impacts – must be examined intensively and comprehensively in the project appraisal. Projects with a negative rating in any of these categories may not be supported.
- Projects affecting the rights of indigenous peoples must be excluded if the latter have not given their free, prior and informed consent.
- Transparency about guarantees and the projects they support must be increased.
Groundbreaking research reveals the financiers of the coal industry
(Urgewald & Reclaim Finance, Berlin, 24 February 2021) urgewald, Reclaim Finance, Rainforest Action Network, 350.org Japan and 25 further NGO partners have published groundbreaking research on the financiers and investors behind the global coal industry. It was found that in January 2021, 4,488 institutional investors held investments totaling USD 1.03 trillion in companies operating along the thermal coal value chain. The top commercial bank lenders to the coal industry are Mizuho, SMBC, MUFG, Citigroup and Barclays. Scandinavian banks poured $67 billion into the fossil fuel industry since Paris. The Rainforest Action Network notes that while “welcom(ing) President Biden’s Executive Order to end public financing for fossil fuels abroad, the new administration must also address the role of Wall Street as a huge driver of climate pollution around the world – driving us ever deeper into a climate crisis”.
IFC adopts Urgewald’s Global Coal Exit List
(Urgewald, Sassenberg, 21 September 2020) In its recently released report on Greening Equity Investments in Financial Institutions the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, announced it has adopted Urgewald’s Global Coal Exit List. Furthermore, the IFC recommends the Global Coal Exit List to its clients and urges them to screen their exposure against the list. [2] Urgewald’s Global Coal Exit List provides comprehensive data on the world’s coal industry. Talks about cooperating with Urgewald to adopt the Global Coal Exit List had started after an IFC announcement in April 2019. Since then the NGO has been able to convince the IFC to amend their coal exit criteria in two important ways:
- to exclude the companies responsible for coal expansion as opposed to only coal projects
- include a definition of the coal share of revenue that not only refers to coal sales but different coal-related business activities
While urging clients to screen their portfolios against the Global Coal Exit List is an important first step, the next step for the IFC has to invariably be a detailed follow-up to verify that clients actually implement the new criteria.
The World Needs to Quit Coal. Why Is It So Hard?
(New York Times, Hanoi, 24 November 2018) Coal, the fuel that powered the industrial age, has led the planet to the brink of catastrophic climate change. Scientists have repeatedly warned of its looming dangers, most recently on Friday, when a major scientific report issued by 13 United States government agencies warned that the damage from climate change could knock as much as 10 % off the size of the American economy by century’s end if significant steps aren’t taken to rein in warming. An October report from the United Nations’ scientific panel on global warming found that avoiding the worst devastation would require a radical transformation of the world economy in just a few years. Central to that transformation: Getting out of coal, and fast. According to the latest assessment by the International Energy Agency, it is not on track to happen anywhere fast enough to avert the worst effects of climate change. Last year, in fact, global production and consumption increased after two years of decline. Home to half the world’s population, Asia accounts for 3/4 of global coal consumption today. More important, it accounts for more than 3/4 of coal plants that are either under construction or in the planning stages — a whopping 1,200 of them, according to ECA Watch member Urgewald, a German advocacy group that tracks coal development. Heffa Schücking, who heads Urgewald, called those plants “an assault on the Paris goals.” [OECD coal support abroad is mainly provided by national export credit agencies.]
NGOs release list of world’s top coal plant developers
(Urgewald, Berlin, 4 October 2018) Four days before the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) puts forward its special report on 1.5°C, NGOs have released a new list of the world’s top 120 coal plant developers. “Building new coal plants is an assault on the Paris climate goals,” said Heffa Schuecking, director of the German environment NGO Urgewald. “Our list names the top companies investors and banks need to shun if they are committed to limiting our planet’s temperature rise.” While 2017 was another record-busting year for renewables, coal power is still growing in many parts of the world. Currently, 1,380 new coal plants or units are planned or under development in 59 countries. The world’s largest coal plant developer is China’s National Energy Investment Group (NEI), which aims to build 37,837 MW of new coal plants.
Banks criticised for funding coal deals despite Paris agreement
(ECA Watch, Ottawa, 31 December 2017) At the One Planet Summit in Paris in December 2017 a number of NGO, environmental and social movement organizations released briefings and research reports highlighting fossil fuel projects that are being funded by multilateral and national development banks and export credit agencies. The Big Shift global campaign released a briefing titled Dirty Dozen (pdf); complementary reports, ‘Banks vs. the Paris Agreement’ and ‘Investors vs. the Paris Agreement’ (pdf) were launched by Rainforest Action Network, BankTrack, Urgewald, Friends of the Earth France, and Re:Common at the Climate Finance Day in Paris; and the Natural Resource Defense Council released Power Shift: International Coal vs. Renewable Energy Finance.
