Loopholes in fossil fuel ban 'threaten PM's climate credentials'

Coal powered power stations in Poland

Source: CAFOD

Boris Johnson's climate leadership credentials could be jeopardised if the government backs more fossil fuel projects overseas, according to Catholic aid agency CAFOD.

The Prime Minister announced in December that the UK will stop providing support for oil and gas overseas, at a 'Climate Ambition Summit' attended by 75 world leaders, including Pope Francis. Yet ministers have confirmed that a number of fossil fuel projects are still being considered for approval by UK Export Finance, a government body which underwrites risky business activity outside the UK.

Campaigners are also concerned that the ban could be delayed for months and that loopholes will enable other publicly funded bodies to evade the ban and use UK taxpayer money to continue backing overseas projects.

Further use of public money to support new oil and gas projects would lead to an "outcry", warned CAFOD Campaigns Manager Liam Finn.

Campaigners have warned that government pledges to bring in the ban "as soon as possible" are too vague, with the policy change not coming into effect until a consultation period ends which includes "later than 2021" as an option for the start of the ban.

CAFOD has also criticised a loophole which could allow funding to continue to go towards fossil fuels even after the ban is implemented, as the government has failed to make the policy compulsory for the CDC Group and the Private Infrastructure Development Group, two organisations that receive aid money for private sector investments.

Liam Finn said: "The Prime Minister's decision to stop backing fossil fuel projects overseas was a big step in the right direction, putting an end to a policy which made a mockery of the government's claims to be taking the climate crisis seriously.

"But the ban has to be implemented immediately and apply to all UK spending - whether that's directly or indirectly through private sector organisations. People will be outraged if the government allows any more public money to be used to support the fossil fuels which are driving temperature rises and devastating vulnerable communities.

"As Pope Francis said at the very summit where the Prime Minister made the announcement, measures to end the climate emergency 'cannot be postponed any further' when so many of our sisters and brothers worldwide are already paying the price for a crisis for which the UK and other wealthy countries bear the greatest historic responsibility."

The news that the UK would stop supporting fossil fuels overseas was welcomed by charities and campaign groups, with thousands of Catholics having signed petitions and lobbied MPs on the issue in recent years.

Research from CAFOD and the Overseas Development Institute showed that the UK provided £7.8bn in support for energy overseas between 2010 and 2017, with 60 per cent going to fossil fuels.

Finn said: "The eyes of the world are going to be on the UK this year as the host country of both the G7 meeting of rich countries and the COP26 climate talks.

"If Boris Johnson wants to show the leadership needed for those meetings to be a success, he can't afford to give any impression of committing to one course of action but doing the opposite in practice."

PETITION Urge Boris Johnson to put communities affected by the climate crisis at the heart of COP26: www.cafod.org.uk/reclaim