URGENT: Less than a week to dump dirty development

Is this email not displaying correctly? View in your browser

Hi John,

Despite claiming that it will stop funding fossil fuels overseas, our government is still making plans to fund oil and gas projects in Brazil, Uganda and Iraq. We have less than a week to tell them: dump dirty development for good!

As I mentioned previously, the government has opened up a consultation on how to implement its ban on fossil fuel funding. This is a great opportunity for us to show how important this policy is.

However, whilst the small print is being decided, government bodies like CDC Group and UK Export Finance are still considering fossil fuel applications.

We already knew that UKEF were considering support for a huge oil pipeline in Uganda, and this week it was revealed that they are also in talks to finance a power plant in Iraq, plus two oil and gas exploration projects in Brazil.

With time running out to respond to the consultation before its deadline on Monday 8 February, we need all of your help to make sure this ban is implemented immediately.

Take action today by emailing the Consultation team. We've created a suggested email template and it will only take a few seconds.

Take action

No exceptions

But that’s not the only problem with this consultation. There are also plenty of ways in which the government could keep funding fossil fuels after the ban is in place if it introduces enough loopholes.

One huge potential loophole is for gas power. The government claims that gas power is an essential part of the transition away from coal and oil, but campaigners heavily dispute this and have pointed out that more gas infrastructure will almost certainly take us above 1.5 degrees of global warming.

Just last week, the US climate change envoy John Kerry agreed with campaigners, saying that gas cannot be viewed as a “bridge fuel” to low carbon alternatives.

What’s more, the government’s own development bank CDC Group has just published its own policy, appearing to have decided the outcome of the consultation before it’s even over! CDC has invested over half a billion pounds of UK aid in fossil fuels in the past decade and must be stopped from going further.

With the newly inaugurated President Joe Biden having announced intentions to end all US public financing of fossil fuels in recent weeks, we need to send the message to our own government to stop financing fossil fuels, without loopholes or exceptions!

Take action

Thank you for your support.

Daniel Willis
Climate campaigner at Global Justice Now

Notes

[1] Dirty development dumped - https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/blog/2020/dec/15/dirty-development-dumped

[2] More fossil fuels in the pipeline -
https://theecologist.org/2020/dec/16/more-fossil-fuels-pipeline

[3] Gas is not a bridge fuel -
http://priceofoil.org/2019/05/30/gas-is-not-a-bridge-fuel

[4] UK development bank investing hundreds of millions of pounds in fossil fuels -
https://cafod.org.uk/News/Press-office/Press-releases/CDC-fossil-fuel-investments

The US-UK trade deal could give corporations everything they want. Help us stop it.

We are campaigning to stop the toxic US trade deal which is likely to lower food standards, weaken chemical regulation, increase medicine prices and block climate action.

Regular gifts give us the long-term stability to plan effective campaigns for a more just world. And they will help further the campaign to stop this toxic trade deal.

If you’re not already a member, will you join today?

Join today