Public Financing For Overseas Coal Projects Tops $73bn Since 2007

By Paul Homewood 

 

 

http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/about-bp/energy-economics/statistical-review-of-world-energy.html

 

 

As we know, coal production has been steadily rising in the last decade and more. In part, this has been enabled by external financing, whether developing coal mines, infrastructure or new coal fired power stations.

 

Greenies of course are horrified by this, as the NRDC report:

 

NRDC: Public is Financing $73 billion in Coal Development, Report Reveals

Governments, financial institutions worldwide still backing coal-fired power plants and coal mining worsening climate pollution

WASHINGTON (June 2, 2015) –International financial institutions and governments worldwide are pouring billions of dollars into building new and existing coal-fired power plants and expanding coal mining – activities that worsen dangerous carbon pollution, according to a new report that calls for an end to all international coal financing, except in very rare circumstances.

The report, “Under the Rug: How Governments and International Institutions Are Hiding Billions in Support to the Coal Industry,” documents for the first time key governments and financing organizations that have backed more than $73 billion in coal-related projects over the last eight years. The full extent of government financing for coal-related development overseas is not common knowledge, and the report’s findings are relatively conservative.

These projects have added half a billion tons of new carbon pollution to the air annually. That’s equal to the annual carbon pollution released by Italy, the world’s 20^th largest emitter of the pollution fuelling climate change.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, Oil Change International and the World Wide Fund for Nature, which co-authored the report, call for an immediate end to such coal financing, and single out Japan, Germany, and Korea, along with other countries’ international export credit agencies as the worst offenders.

 

Some of this funding is from the World Bank and other multilateral lenders, but nearly half comes in the from of Export Credit Agencies. These typically don’t offer finance per se, but act as insurer in the event that the customer does not pay up, and thereby encourage exporters to enter potentially risky markets.

What all this shows is that, while paying lip service to CO2 targets, countries such as Japan, Korea, Germany, and of course China are as keen as ever to export the equipment needed for these coal projects.

Greenery is nice, but money is better!