Both ENDS

News / 15 April 2021

New initiative to phase out export support for fossil fuels lacks ambition

On Wednesday, April 14, seven countries, including the Netherlands, launched an initiative called Export Finance for Future (E3F), in which they set a number of ambitions with regard to phasing out export support for the fossil sector. Many NGOs worldwide, including Both ENDS in the Netherlands, have been calling for such an initiative in recent years and we are therefore pleased with this step. However, to achieve results and contribute to the Paris climate goals, countries will have to commit to much more ambitious goals than those now set. Concerned civil society organizations, including Both ENDS, therefore prepared a statement detailing the weaknesses they felt in the policy proposed by E3F, supplemented with recommendations for improvements.

Nothing new

Rather than formulating and adding new ambitions, the E3F principles are mainly a reiteration of what most signatories are already doing: stop or phase out support for the coal industry, promote 'green' products and be more transparent about their support for the oil and gas sector. If the countries behind E3F are to deliver real results, they must take decisive action that will end all fossil fuel export funding for good. They can take an example from the United Kingdom, which decided last month to no longer grant new export financing to almost all fossil fuel projects.

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The response of the international coalition of civil society organizations to the content of the E3F initiative

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