(Guardian, London, 24 September 2024) Rich countries could raise five times the money that poor countries are demanding in climate finance, through windfall taxes on fossil fuels, ending harmful subsidies and a wealth tax on billionaires, research has shown. Developing nations are asking for at least $1tn (£750bn) a year of public funds to help them cut greenhouse gases and cope with the impacts of extreme weather. Research by the pressure group Oil Change International, published on Tuesday, shows that rich countries could generate $5tn a year from a combination of wealth and corporate taxes, and a crackdown on fossil fuels. A wealth tax on billionaires could generate $483bn globally, while a financial transaction tax could raise $327bn. Taxes on sales of big technology, arms and luxury fashion would be another $112bn, and redistributing 20% of public military spending would be worth $454bn if implemented around the world. Stopping subsidies [from OECD ECAs?] to fossil fuels would free up $270bn of public money in the rich world, and about $846bn globally. Taxes on fossil fuel extraction would be worth $160bn in the rich world, and $618bn globally.
Newsletter
Shifting and unlocking trillions for a just energy transition
(Oil Change International, Washington, 24 September 2024) Rich countries can mobilize well over $5 trillion a year for climate action at home and abroad by ending fossil fuel handouts, making big polluters pay, and changing unfair global financial rules. This briefing, endorsed by 36 civil society organizations, is published as global leaders meet at Climate Week NYC and the United Nations General Assembly ahead of COP29, where leaders must agree on a new global climate finance target (NCQG). This target must be at least $1 trillion annually in grants and grant-equivalent finance and is essential for countries to deliver last year’s commitment to transition away from fossil fuels. Only strong finance targets will unlock strong national climate plans (NDCs) due in 2025 that phase out fossil fuels. A new Oil Change briefing reveals how governments in North America and Europe are preparing to waste hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on these ineffective technologies, further benefiting the fossil fuel industry, despite their record profits. They add that carbon capture has a 50-year record of failure and ask why governments [and ECAs] are throwing billions of dollars at it?
Deutsche Bank & ECAs finance $3.1 billion Indonesian fossil fuel project
(Risk Net, London, 26 September 2024) Last year, Deutsche Bank was selected as sole hedge co-ordinator and hedge arranger for a landmark $3.1 billion project-financing deal in Indonesia. Deutsche Bank declined to say who the client was, only that it was a processing and petrochemical company that wanted to modernise and expand an oil and gas refinery in the country. The project is part of Jakarta’s strategy for reforming the country’s oil and gas sector. Indonesia’s economy remains heavily dependent on oil and gas, and yet for several years has imported far more of the commodity than it has produced. The $3.1 billion project-financing deal was one of the largest ever done in Indonesia, involving three export credit agencies and 22 commercial lenders.
Critical Minerals Security Partnership may not be enough for Australia
(Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Canberra, 25 September 2024) Fourteen countries this week took what they intended to be a big step in countering China’s dominance of critical minerals supply. But it’s unclear whether the initiative will restore competitiveness of Australian production and investment in the face of massive subsidies offered by China and, in response, the United States. The Minerals Security Partnership, a coalition of 14 countries, including the G7, Australia, India, South Korea, and European Union members, announced plans for a finance network to boost investment in critical metals. The initiative will tap into domestic export credit agencies and development finance institutions to attract private sector capital to produce, extract, process and recycle critical minerals, especially in riskier markets. The partnership seeks to lower investment risks and drive global supply chain resilience by providing guarantees and concessional financing. Australia’s economic prosperity and national security are intrinsically linked to the exploitation of its abundant resources, notably critical minerals. These minerals are the new oil. They’re the building blocks for everything from emerging technology to energy transition. Although Australia has vast reserves, its critical mineral mining and processing are still threatened by the intense subsidy war between the US and China.
UK & Polish ECAs target green exports with €249 million for Turkish solar project
(UK Government, London, 8 August 2024) UK Export Finance (UKEF) and KUKE, the UK and Polish export credit agencies, have guaranteed a €249 million loan being arranged by Standard Chartered Bank for Turkish renewable energy investment company Kalyon Enerji, enabling the construction of Turkey’s second-largest solar project to date. This deal is expected to support UK jobs in the renewable-energy sector supply chain, particularly in the Midlands.
India’s RIL secures over $7 billion in offshore finance
(Hindu Business Line, Mumbai, 7 August 2024) Reliance Industries (RIL), India’s largest private sector company, secured over $7 billion in various offshore financing initiatives in FY24, and it would continue to monitor financial markets to seize suitable opportunities for capital raising to support its growth plans.. It obtained $4.45 billion in syndicated term loans facilities offshore. RJio also secured $2.2 billion to finance equipment and services for its pan-India 5G rollout comprising first-ever Finnish Export Credit Agency (Finnvera) supported facilities of $1.6-billion equivalent and $600-million equivalent facilities from Canadian Export Credit Agency. It also tied up $625 million with Korean Export Credit Agency to finance the purchase of floating, production, storage and offloading vessel in the oil and gas business.
EU launches export credit facility for Ukraine
(Global Trade Review, London, 2 August 2024) The European Union has launched an inaugural risk-sharing facility for the export credit industry, with an initial €300mn pilot aimed at boosting SME exports to buyers in war-torn Ukraine. The move comes after years of discussions in Brussels over a potential EU export credit facility with the Commission first floating the idea of such an instrument in 2021, citing “harsh competition” in key markets. The facility will extend guarantees to export credit agencies (ECAs) for transactions involving European SMEs and small mid-caps looking to export goods and services to buyers in the Ukrainian market. It is hoped the export credit facility will drive an uptick in European exports to Ukraine and support Kyiv’s reconstruction plan, forecast by the World Bank to cost US$486bn over the next decade.
UKEF reveals £8.8bn government support for UK firms in 2023/24
(Insider Media, Manchester, 1 August 2024) Businesses across the UK benefited from £8.8bn of funding support underwritten by UK Export Finance (UKEF) in the 2023/24 financial year. As the UK government’s export credit agency, UKEF provides loans, guarantees and insurance to help businesses sell their products around the world. The agency’s support in the last financial year enabled 650 UK companies to win or undertake export contracts – an average of almost two businesses securing export financing every day of the year. Businesses across the UK benefited from £8.8bn of funding support underwritten by UK Export Finance (UKEF) in the 2023/24 financial year.
Export credit agencies roar back in Africa
(Global Trade Review, London, 31 July 2024) There was a rebound in export credit agency activity in Sub-Saharan Africa last year, as agencies struck big-ticket deals across infrastructure and renewable energy sectors, fresh data shows. In its annual State of the Industry Report, the Berne Union reveals that export credit agencies (ECAs) and insurers recorded US$23bn in new medium and long-term (MLT) business in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2023, marking a resurgence in activity following a lull period in the immediate aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. In its annual State of the Industry Report, the Berne Union reveals that export credit agencies (ECAs) and insurers recorded US$23bn in new medium and long-term (MLT) business in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2023, marking a resurgence in activity following a lull period in the immediate aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. New ECA and insurer-backed transactions worth US$12bn were signed in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2022, and US$14bn in 2021, says the Berne Union, which represents ECAs, multilateral insurers and commercial underwriters. But last year an “infrastructure boom” triggered a rebound in the export finance market.
Biden Urged to Make EXIM Stop Fueling Climate Crisis
(Common Dreams, Portland, 7 August 2024) Climate advocates on Wednesday formally urged the Biden administration to instruct the United States’ export credit agency to stop financially supporting activities that are fueling the climate emergency. “Over the last two centuries, human-caused greenhouse gas emissions have led to global warming of 1.1ºC above preindustrial levels by 2020 and caused detrimental changes in Earth’s climate,” Friends of the Earth (FOE) and the Global Law Alliance for Animals and the Environment wrote to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Their letter calls on Blinken to “make a determination pursuant to the Chafee Amendment in the Charter of the U.S. Export-Import Bank… that EXIM should deny applications for financial support for all activities and projects whose life-cycle emissions intensity substantially contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and the climate crisis.”
