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 The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
figures on export credits are central to a debate on targeting
funding ahead of U.N. climate talks in Paris at the end of the year.
Just when the European Union is leading the push for a new global
deal on curbing emissions and is phasing out domestic coal
subsidies, the documents underline the scale of the developed
world's investment in exporting technology for the most polluting
fossil fuel.
Earlier this year, a document seen by Reuters provided the closest
yet to official figures on coal export credits.
Further documents give the context of all energy export subsidies.
One, dated March 4, when the OECD held closed-door talks on the
issue, shows OECD governments provided preferential loans and
state-backed guarantees worth $36.8 billion between 2003 and 2013
for exporting fossil fuel power-generation technology, including
almost $14 billion for coal.
A document from October 2014 shows another $52.6 billion in export
credits was allocated for the extraction of fossil fuels, including
coal, taking the fossil fuel total to $89.4 billion.
Export credits for technology for renewable energy, which has no
extraction costs, were $16.7 billion.
An OECD spokesman said he could not comment on documents marked
confidential. But the documents themselves say the data should be
public.
"There would seem to be a pressing need to issue coherent, complete
and accurate figures on official export credit support that is
relevant to climate change issues," the March 4 document says.
EU officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the March
talks made little progress and the issue would be raised again at
OECD level in June.
The OECD has said it wants a decision on how export credits can help
tackle climate change in time for the U.N. summit that begins on
Nov. 30 in Paris.
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A debate within the EU, which accounts for two thirds of OECD
nations, is deadlocked because Poland has blocked as too ambitious a
compromise to allow export funding for only the most efficient coal
technology, the EU officials said. Britain and France objected,
saying the compromise was not ambitious enough.
Germany, the biggest EU user of export credits both for coal and
renewables, the data shows, is planning measures to make operators
of coal plants, such as RWE, curb production at their oldest and
most-polluting power stations as part of efforts to achieve climate
targets.
A letter to the European Commission from industry associations, the
European Power Plant Suppliers Association, EU Turbines and
Germany's VDMA, said halting coal export credits would lock
developing nations into less-efficient technology and curtail
European industry's competitiveness.
Environment campaigners dismiss those arguments.
Sebastien Godinot, an economist at WWF, said the industry had
"failed to bring any concrete evidence that the OECD export finance
policy drives more efficient technology".
(Editing by Dale Hudson)
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