World to Biden: Stop Financing Coal, Oil and Gas Abroad

by Han Chen (NRDC) NRDC and hundreds of other organizations around the world have just submitted a letter calling on the Biden Administration to immediately end all US public financing for fossil fuels, including “natural” gas. The letter asks the Biden Administration to make good on its climate executive order, which directed agencies to end ”carbon-intensive” finance, a commitment that Climate Envoy John Kerry characterized as “a plan for ending international financing of fossil fuel projects with public money.” (Link to Letter)

Over 430 organizations are represented, spanning six continents. This include representation from countries where the US government is already financing or planning to finance fossil fuel projects. US public finance for overseas fossil fuel projects averaged more than $4 billion annually over the past decade, according to Oil Change International, at times exceeding $10 billion in a single year (primarily through the US Export-Import Bank and the US Development Finance Corporation, formerly the Overseas Private Investment Corporation). Our organizations are calling for a policy that restricts US public finance for all fossil fuels, including gas, which received high volumes of support under both the Obama and Trump administrations.

Promoting Gas and Other Fossil Fuels Will Impede Global Decarbonization

By promoting fossil fuel projects overseas, especially gas infrastructure, the US is making it harder for countries to decarbonize. We have to stop subsidizing fossil fuel companies at the expense of our climate. It’s irrational for an administration so focused on climate change to promote LNG facilities. Those facilities could waste billions in taxpayer dollars and would lock countries into high-emissions pathways. Why would we promote fossil fuel infrastructure in Vietnam, for example, instead of competing with European and Chinese businesses that are dominating the renewables market there?

The US should support nations through US programs for renewables deployment, grid improvement, storage, and energy efficiency. More gas is not needed for renewables deployment. In many countries, there is already sufficient dispatchable capacity to reliably integrate renewables assets. We have years - if not a decade or more - before most grids achieve high levels of renewable penetrations (80 percent or more). Investments in storage technologies, energy efficiency and demand response are more cost-effective ways to further reduce total loads and provide additional flexibility and load shifting services, without building expensive gas infrastructure and increasing a nation’s emissions.

Time to Create a New Global Standard for Ending Fossil Finance

if the US announces an immediate end to its international support for fossil fuels, this will influence many other governments to do the same, and could help eliminate tens of billions of dollars annually in support for the fossil fuel industry. READ MORE