In a commitment signed by 30 signatories to end public financing of coal, oil and gas.
Spain joined this Wednesday at COP26 to a commitment signed by 30 signatories to end public financing of coal, oil and gas abroad by the end of 2022.
Following a wave of commitments focused on ending international coal financing, this signed agreement will increase potential public funds transferred from fossil fuels – oil, gas and coal – to clean energy to at least $ 23.6 billion. per year (20,400 million euros).
This is the first commitment that addresses oil and gas in addition to coal, and implies that Spanish public financial institutions will have to end this financing by the end of 2022.
These financial entities include the Export Credit Agency (Cesce), responsible for $ 1.9 billion (1.64 billion euros) annually in public financing for fossil fuels.
The co-director of Oil Change International’s global public finance campaign, Laurie van der Burg, celebrated in a statement Spain’s adherence to this agreement, because “science is clear that expanding the fossil fuel infrastructure is incompatible with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees ”.
This Wednesday’s announcement ranks France as “the only one of the five largest economies in the EU that has not yet signed the declaration,” van der Burg noted.
If France joins, the potential amount of annual public funding shifting directly from dirty to clean energy would amount to $ 24 billion (€ 20.75 billion).
Friends of the Earth France climate and just transition activist Anna-Lena Rebaud said in a statement that French President Emmanuel Macron “presented France as a climate leader,” although his government “plans to support the gas production until 2035 “, and” is still considering supporting the huge gas project in the Russian Arctic. “
For this reason, Rebaud urged the French government to “follow the example” of the 30 countries and institutions committed to “end all public support for oil and gas by the end of 2022”. (I)
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