Seven European states to cease fossil fuel export guarantees: press
Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK will all pledge to stop providing public export guarantees for oil, gas and coal projects, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire was quoted as saying by Reuters on April 13.
France, Sweden and the UK have already presented plans for ending guarantees. But the other four countries have not decided yet how quickly they want to phase them out.
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France plans to stop providing the guarantees to upstream projects involving the dirtiest forms of oil this year, followed by all oil from 2025 and natural gas from 2035. The UK, meanwhile, is expected to implement a ban on guarantees and other financing support for oil, gas and coal projects, with very few exceptions, before the UN Climate Change Conference that will take place in Glasgow in November 2021.
"We are totally determined to stop all export guarantees financing fossil fuels while taking account each country's industrial specifics and the impact on jobs," Le Maire said.
The commitment by the seven countries will be formalised at a meeting on April 14. The group will also commit to supporting climate-friendly projects and ensuring transparency in their export financing.