High-Level Conference NET-ZERO BY 2050 THE ROLE OF EXPORT FINANCE
Organised by the Directorate-General for Trade, European Commission
Thursday, 25 April 2024, Thon Hotel EU, Brussels, with online participation
Agenda
• Session one – The Green Transition – Challenges for Export Finance
◦ Panel discussion. Representatives of the International Energy Agency, NGOS, business as well as the European Commission will present the context for export credits efforts towards alianment. and will discuss the challenges of the green transition for export finance.
• Session 2 – National export finance policies: Phasing out fossil fuels and scaling up clean energy
◦ Panel discussion. Representatives from ECAs and national governments will discuss approaches they have taken to support the transition to Net Zero by 2050. In Council Conclusions of 15 March 2022, each Member State committed to establishing a national plan to phase out any official support for fossil fuel related projects, while scaling-up clean energy. The panellists will present their national plans and their implementation, followed by a discussion.
• Session3 – International Cooperation on Export Finance and Climate
◦ Panel 3 will assess efforts made at an international level to align the worldwide export credits community with the climate objectives. Two international coalitions of ECAs will present their efforts and be joined by a representative of the European Commission among others.
• Wrap up & conclusion
ECA Watch members Halifax Initiative, Both Ends and CounterCurrent, together with Brazilian organisation Forum Suape and Colombian organisation Movimiento Rios Vivos, published a new report entitled Export Credt and Human Rights: Failure to Protect. The report calls on states to fulfill their duty to protect human rights through the operations of their export credit agencies.
Failure to Protect uses several case studies to illustrate that ECA-supported investments are often associated with human rights abuse, despite the OECD Recommendation known as the Common Approaches, which provides guidance to ECAs and includes a reference to human rights.
The publication includes case studies on the Carajas iron project in the Brazilian Amazon, the Hidrosogamoso dam in Colombia, the Suape port in Brazil and ECA support for investment in Belarus.
You can download the report here.
November 14, 2013
ECA Watch has prepared this ‘shadow report’ — with the support of other civil society groups — in order to assess current ECA practice in relation to issues such as transparency, public accountability and more generally, their compliance with the EU’s objectives on external action. It is based on ECAs’ own annual public reports, questionnaires sent to Export Credit Agencies (ECA), and freedom of information requests. The report starts by giving some background information regarding ECAs and how they are regulated. It analyses ECAs’ answers to ECA Watch’s questionnaires, and highlights a couple of case studies to illustrate our concerns. It analyses the annualreports that Member States sent to the EC and highlights points that should be investigated further by the EC. It concludes by indicating options for the European Commission, Council and Parliament to improve the regulatory framework for EU ECAs.
Over 50 representatives of Indonesian and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and social movements convened in Jakarta and South Sumatra 1-7 May, 2000, for a strategy meeting on official export credit and investment insurance agencies (ECAs). They agreed on the following Declaration, endorsed by 347 NGOs from 45 countries
A report by the Sumatran coalition Eyes on the Forest,1 investigates whether Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), the manufacturer of paper products, complied with its legally binding obligation to develop sustainable forestry operations and pulp and paper production. These environmental covenants were part of a restructuring agreement that APP reached with its creditors, including eight European export credit agencies, after announcing in 2001 that it would default on $13.9 billion in worldwide debt. More than 34,000 hectares of APP’s Pulau Muda forest management unit are of high conservation value and as part of its obligation, APP agreed to set these aside for conservation.
According to the report, satellite images reveal that APP began clearing the forest just three years after signing this agreement, swallowing one-third of the forest that APP committed to protect. A number of mills are rumoured to start up in the current expansion of Indonesian pulpwood plantations; among them, APP’s development of the world’s largest single pulp line in Sumatra. ECA Watch support European Environmental Paper Network’s campaign against APP.2
(Dec 2011) Export Credit Agencies and the roots of developing country debt. This report from Eurodad shows that export credit guarantees are at the root of most developing country debt. Eurodad assessed the debts owed by developing countries to four European countries and found that almost 80% of poor countries’ debts to other governments came from export credits, not development loans.
This research conducted for FERN analyses the involvement of all 21 ECAs of EU member countries in the financing of carbon-intensive industries during the period 2004-2009.
(2009) Written by Jan Cappelle for IPIS, this report looks specifically at the practices of the two most signifcant players for Belgian exports at the federal level: FINEXPO and Ducroire. It also looks at the extent to which these organisations adhere to the financial terms, legal terms and conditions set out in the EURODAD Charter on Responsible Financing.
(March 14, 2007) Investment is not just a blandly apolitical process by which money is mysteriously made to grow, but a process in which companies and governments define and redistribute access to assets, determining who accumulates wealth and at whose expense. This book, by Kavaljit Singh, aims to educate us how investment works, who the main players are and what trends are emerging.
