Biden Administration to Utilize EXIM as Key Element in New International Climate Finance Plan

(JD Supra, Sausalito, 27 April 2021) On April 22, 2021, President Joe Biden announced his International Climate Finance Plan as a follow up to his January Executive Order 14008 on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. This International Climate Finance Plan reflects the Administration’s desire to double, by 2024, U.S. annual public climate finance to developing countries using as a baseline the average level during the second half of the Obama Administration. The Biden Climate Finance Plan is also supposed to be a boon to U.S. companies, particularly manufacturers of products and technologies viewed as environmentally beneficial. Accordingly, the Export-Import Bank of the United States is expected to play a key role in helping the Administration achieve its stated goals. As the U.S. Government’s official export credit agency, the Ex-Im Bank provides direct loans, loan guarantees, and export credit insurance in support of exports of U.S. goods, services, and technologies. By helping foreign buyers (public and private), Ex-Im Bank fills gaps in private export finance and supports U.S. jobs.