Fossil fuel hypocrisy

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Hi John,

We need your help to demand that the government stops investing public money in fossil fuel infrastructure overseas.

Despite claiming to show “climate leadership” and committing to end financial support for polluting industries under the Paris Agreement five years ago, the UK government has continued to pour billions of pounds into fossil fuels around the world.

Our latest analysis shows that the UK has invested nearly £4 billion of public money in fossil fuel infrastructure in the global south since the Paris Agreement was signed. Of this, over half a billion pounds was from the UK aid budget. This is an embarrassment ahead of the rearranged COP26 climate summit next year.

This week CDC Group, the government’s development bank, announced a new climate strategy that it claims would end this. But the strategy is full of holes and would allow most of its previous fossil fuel investments to continue.

Can you join me in calling on the government to end ALL its fossil fuel financing today?

Sign the petition

We have spent many years exposing CDC Group for its dubious aid investments in things like cosmetic surgery clinics, colonial palm oil plantations and private schools. Our previous report, Doing More Harm Than Good, warned about CDC’s failures to invest in a just and responsible way, or show how its investments are genuinely tackling poverty around the world.

But with CDC set to receive billions more of aid money in the years to come, it is vital to eliminate fossil fuel projects from its portfolio completely. Through CDC, aid money has been given to projects including:

$39 million invested in Tè Power in March 2018 to build a 50 megawatt, heavy fuel oil-burning power plant in Conakry, Guinea
$82.9 million given to Amandi Energy in December 2016 to construct a 203 megawatt gas turbine in Western Ghana
$103 million given to the Sembcorp North-West Power CompanyAugust 2017 to construct the Sirajganj 4 gas power plant in Bangladesh

This is a totally contradictory use of UK aid which is fuelling the climate crisis.

It’s not just CDC. Billions of pounds of fossil fuel support have also been given through UK Export Finance (UKEF) in recent years. Just last month it was reported that UKEF is set to give support to a disastrous $20 billion project in Mozambique.

But now we have an opportunity to change things. CDC’s announcement of its new climate strategy shows that the government is already feeling the pressure to justify these investments. But there are so many loopholes that most of its current investments would still be allowed. If we are serious about the climate crisis, we need public support for fossil fuel projects across government to come to an end.

This is a crucial moment to tell the government that this practice must stop. We are calling on the Prime Minister, Chancellor and COP26 President to:

Immediately end all UK investments in fossil fuels via the aid budget and UK Export Finance

Divest from existing projects within the next two years

Convert CDC Group into an international Green Investment Bank

Rapidly step up climate finance, before, during and after COP26, to fund a just transition to renewable energy in the global south

Will you support our campaign by calling on the government to end its fossil fuel financing?

Sign the petition

We need a new vision for development which prioritises closing global inequalities and tackling the climate emergency simultaneously.

Thank you,

Daniel Willis

Global Justice Now

[2] Campaigners condemn new £100m of UK aid for fossil fuels in Africa, 30 June 2020

[3] UK government development bank to end fossil fuel financing, 2 July 2020

[4] UK funding fossil fuels overseas, 17 June 2020

[5] UK Government-Owned Investor Using Hundreds of Millions of Aid Money to Finance Fossil Fuels Abroad, 10 March 2020

[6] Doing more harm than good? Our latest report on the UK's development bank, CDC, 14 February 2020

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