Johnson poised to stop UKEF funding overseas fossil fuel projects

(MSN News, London, 12 August 2020) Boris Johnson is poised to sign off new rules barring the UK government’s chief foreign lender from offering financial support to foreign fossil fuel projects. The new policy, which could come as soon as this week, will rule out future loans and financial guarantees for polluting projects overseas through the UK’s export credit agency, UK Export Finance, just weeks after it agreed to a £1bn financial package to support work on a gas project in Mozambique. Under the new rules no support may be offered to fossil fuel extraction or oil refining projects from 2021, apart from limited funding for gas-fired power plants “in exceptional circumstances”. The funding plan raised hackles within the prime minister’s office earlier this summer, according to sources, because aides were told that Africa’s biggest ever financing deal in Mozambique was too far advanced for UKEF to abandon. Green campaigners have described UKEF policies as “rank hypocrisy”, falling foul of OECD guidelines.