‘Insuring’ climate chaos

The Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD), the UK government department responsible for underwriting UK industry overseas, is part of a wider group of export credit agencies (ECAs) worldwide, which are collectively among the largest sources of public financial support for foreign corporate involvement in industrial projects in the developing world (providing some US$55bn a year for project finance). ECAs are estimated to support twice the amount of oil, gas and mining projects as all of the Multilateral Development Banks combined; and half of all new greenhouse gas-emitting industrial projects in developing countries have some form of ECA support. But James Leaton , senior policy advisor to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), points to the total absence of transparency with regard to the levels of greenhouse gas emissions caused by projects the ECGD supports. In a new WWF report, ‘Insuring’ Climate Chaos, Mr Leaton argues that until the ECGD monitors its contribution to global emissions, it cannot set targets or manage reduction. Indeed, Mr Leaton believes that some investments may actually improve efficiency or reduce emissions, but that there is currently no way of crediting this with the limited information available.