Export-Import Bank Is Set to Approve Estonia Oil Project
WASHINGTON — Today, the board of directors at the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM) is scheduled to approve support for Liwathon’s oil tank project in Estonia. EXIM has not provided any environmental and social impact documents for this oil project in Estonia. This financing is among a growing list of fossil fuel projects EXIM is considering supporting or has voted to finance in 2023, including:
- Approving almost $100 million for an oil refinery in Indonesia
- Approving $400 million for Trafigura to aid in US liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.
- Approving $240 million for a gas project in Iraq.
- Potentially backing Papua LNG in Papua New Guinea, oil and gas development in Bahrain, and oil and gas development in Guyana.
Last month at Climate Week events in New York, President Biden promised to use the whole of the U.S. government to address climate change, and then created a Climate Corps with the aim of creating new green jobs. In addition, President Biden has repeatedly committed to end overseas fossil fuel financing, both in an executive order in January 2021 and at the UNFCCC COP in Glasgow in December 2021.
“President Biden cannot claim climate wins while his US Export-Import Bank is propping up a pollutive industry,” said Kate DeAngelis, Senior International Finance Program Manager for Friends of the Earth U.S. “EXIM spent the hottest months in history approving four major fossil fuel projects, demonstrating its disregard for the planet and all living beings. An institution that chooses polluters over people should not be trusted to follow President Biden’s climate commitments. ”
“EXIM bank’s continued support of fossil fuel infrastructure flies in the face of both climate science and the US’s commitments made almost two years ago, to end public finance for fossil fuels,” said Nina Pusic, Export Finance Climate Strategist at Oil Change International. “Ultimately, using American taxpayer dollars to finance oil and gas infrastructure is not only an irresponsible use of public money from a climate perspective, but also risks creating stranded assets, as many regions of the world quickly transition to cleaner energy sources.”
As the International Energy Agency and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have made clear, any new oil and gas investment is incompatible with preventing global temperatures from exceeding 1.5ºC.
Communications contact: Shaye Skiff, [email protected], 202-222-0723