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News / 13 juli 2021

Call on government: present scenario for export support in line with climate goals

The government provides an average of 1.5 billion euros a year in export support for fossil projects by Dutch companies, in the form of insurance and guarantees. The climate crisis requires that the Netherlands and other countries stop providing export support for fossil energy projects, whether it be coal, oil or gas, before the end of this year.

The Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs are responsible for these export credit insurance provisions. They have been given the political task of investigating how the export credit insurance provided by the state can be brought in line with the Paris Agreement, which the Netherlands signed in 2015. In preparation for this investigation, the ministries presented a preliminary study. Both ENDS, Milieudefensie and Oil Change International, however, find the preliminary study far from adequate. The scenario it portrays makes an insufficient contribution to the climate goals.

While state secretary for finance Hans Vijlbrief and foreign trade minister Sigrid Kaag endorse the need to make the Netherlands' climate goals more ambitious in the short term, the contribution foreseen in the preliminary study falls far short. With this scenario, the goal of restricting global warming to a maximum increase of 1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial age will not be achieved, while the Netherlands has committed itself to reaching that goal. In a response to the preliminary study, the three NGOs issued a call on the government to present a scenario that does bring export credit insurance in line with the 1.5 degrees goal by the end of October at the latest.

For more information:

See our response to the preliminary study

Last year, Both ENDS, Milieudefensie and Oil Change International wrote a memorandum with recommendations for export credit insurance that is in line with the 1.5°C goal laid down in the Paris Agreement.

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