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Joe Biden can seal a breakthrough deal to end global public finance for fossil fuels
(Climate Home News, 26 Aug 2021) When Joe Biden ran for president, he made a promise: no financing for dirty energy projects abroad.
With a new US Treasury guidance on how the US will vote on fossil fuel project proposals at Multilateral Development Banks and a forthcoming policy on how the US’s own agencies will deal with international fossil fuel finance, he is now moving on this agenda.
But it is unclear yet if Biden’s team wants to take real climate leadership on this file or just pretend to do so. One worrying sign is that the multilateral guidance has poorly defined criteria for gas.
While new gas infrastructure will need to stand a Paris alignment and alternatives assessment test in order to receive US support, the guidance lacks detail on how these criteria will be applied.
It should be clear that any credible analysis would find that no new gas projects can be financed — but without further details, it means up to 40% ($1.6 billion a year) of US-related multilateral fossil fuel finance could continue.
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