Elevenfold rise in funding over 12 months came as support for renewables fell to £700,000

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Britain increased support for fossil fuel projects overseas to almost £2bn last year, marking an elevenfold increase over the previous 12 months.

Backing for oil and gas operations in Oman, Kuwait, Brazil and other countries, amounted to more than a quarter of the total commitment by UK Export Finance (UKEF), the government agency responsible for promoting British exports with credit, guarantees, loans and insurance.

The amount was more than double that committed to the high-emitting sector in any of the past four years, according to an analysis by the investigative environmental journalism outlet DeSmog UK.

Britain claims to be a climate leader even as it promotes companies that contribute to greenhouse gases overseas. Last month MPs declared a climate emergency but faced criticism over climate plans deemed inadequate by environmentalists.

Quick guide What zero emissions in 2050 would mean for the UK Show Hide The Committee on Climate Change says cutting greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 is necessary, affordable and desirable. Here are some of the actions needed to make that happen:

• Petrol and diesel cars banned from sale ideally by 2030 and 2035 at the latest. • Quadrupling clean electricity production from wind, solar and perhaps nuclear, plus batteries to store it and connections to Europe to share the load. • Connection of new homes to the gas grid ending in 2025, with boilers using clean hydrogen or replaced by electric powered heat pumps. Plus, all homes and appliances being highly efficient.

• Beef, lamb and dairy consumption falling by 20%, though this is far lower than other studies recommend and a bigger shift to plant-based diets would make meeting the zero target easier.

• A fifth of all farmland – 15% of the UK – being converted to tree planting and growing biofuel crops and restoration of peat bogs. This is vital to take CO2 out of the air to balance unavoidable emissions from cattle and planes.

• 1.5bn new trees will be needed, meaning more than 150 football pitches a day of new forests from now to 2050.

• Flying would not be banned, but the number of flights will depend on how much airlines can cut emissions with electric planes or biofuels.



This month parliament’s environmental audit committee said the UK was sabotaging its climate credentials by providing “unacceptably high” subsidies that locked poorer nations into a fossil fuel future. A separate study this year found the UK led the European Union in giving subsidies to fossil fuels.

UKEF said its support for oil and gas helped ensure the competitiveness of an industry in Britain employing 300,000 people. A spokesperson said the agency “fully recognises the importance of tackling climate change and the need for a mix of energy sources and technologies as the world transitions to a low carbon economy”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Climate change activists at the Extinction Rebellion protests in Hyde Park, London. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters

In a press release UKEF headlined the latest figures as the “best results for 28 years” even though its annual report acknowledged high potential environmental and social risks for several of the projects.

The agency’s biggest single energy deal last year involved £734m in support of the Duqm oil refinery project in Oman. Other large sums were the £248m for oil exploration in Brazil, £171m for an oil refinery in Kuwait, and several hundred million for power projects in Iraq.

The total £2bn support for fossil fuels last year compared with £175m in 2017, £857m in 2016, and £432m in 2015, according to DeSmog.

The figures did not include the aviation and the motor industry, though Airbus, Boeing and Norton Motorcycles also figured prominently on the latest list of supported projects. Companies selling pipeline surveillance equipment to Kuwait, Qatar, India and China, also featured.

By comparison, support for renewables last year slumped to £700,000, and covered mostly wind turbines in the Netherlands and Germany.

Q&A Why is the Guardian changing the language it uses about the environment? Show Hide The Guardian has updated its style guide to introduce terms that more accurately describe the environmental crises facing the world. Instead of “climate change”, the preferred terms are “climate emergency, crisis or breakdown” and “global heating” is favoured over “global warming”. The scale of the climate and wildlife crises has been laid bare by two landmark reports from the world’s scientists. In October 2018, they said carbon emissions must halve by 2030 to avoid even greater risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people. In May 2019, global scientists said human society was in jeopardy from the accelerating annihilation of wildlife and destruction of the ecosystems that support all life on Earth. The editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, says: “We want to ensure that we are being scientifically precise, while also communicating clearly with readers on this very important issue. The phrase ‘climate change’, for example, sounds rather passive and gentle when what scientists are talking about is a catastrophe for humanity.” Other terms that have been updated include the use of “wildlife” rather than “biodiversity”, “fish populations” instead of “fish stocks” and “climate science denier” rather than “climate sceptic”. Damian Carrington Environment editor

Kerry McCarthy, a Labour MP and member of the environmental audit committee, said the agency needed to clean up its act.

She said: “These shocking figures show UKEF is increasingly undermining attempts to tackle our climate emergency. Instead of making renewable energy a priority, as UKEF assured us they were doing when they appeared before our inquiry in March, their own accounts show that support for fossil fuels has increased more than tenfold over the past year. Not only that, support for renewables has declined by a third.”

Outstripping all of them were arms deals, which topped the list with more than £3bn support for weapons systems and Typhoon aircraft sold to Qatar, and with several million pounds for explosive ordnance purchased by Saudi Arabia.