OECD, It’s Time for Export Credit Agencies to Stop Funding Fossil Fuels

(Friends of the Earth US, Washington, 14 November 2017) Precisely as the world’s attention is focused on addressing climate devastation at the 23rd United Nations Climate Conference (COP23) in Bonn, Germany, the largest public drivers of fossil fuel financing are meeting a mere 320 miles away in Paris. The irony couldn’t be starker. Representatives of the very same countries singing their own praises in Bonn are fomenting climate disaster from Paris, at a meeting of export credit agencies (ECAs) at the Organization of Cooperation and Development (OECD) Export Credit Group. Export credit agencies (ECAs) — which are bodies funded by taxpayers to support business overseas — are world leaders in public support for climate destruction. While relatively obscure but powerful institutions, ECAs provide government-backed loans, guarantees, insurance, and credits to projects overseas — including many energy projects — in the hopes of boosting their home countries’ exports and creating and maintaining jobs. According to a recent report by Friends of the Earth U.S. and Oil Change International, ECAs fund almost $40 billion worth of fossil fuel projects each year. That is a whopping 12 times more than what they spend on clean energy projects.