In boost to climate action, Britain to stop backing overseas oil and gas projects

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In boost to climate action, Britain to stop backing overseas oil and gas projects

By Matthew Green

 

FILE PHOTO: Icebergs float in a fjord near the south Greenland town of Narsaq July 28, 2009. REUTERS/Bob Strong/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will pledge to end direct government support for overseas fossil fuel projects at a U.N. summit on Saturday, aiming to spur similar moves by other countries to help tackle climate change, his office said.

 

Britain, which is co-hosting the virtual summit ahead of climate negotiations in Glasgow next year, has faced accusations of hypocrisy from campaigners for continuing to finance climate-warming oil and natural gas projects abroad.

 

"By taking ambitious and decisive action today, we will create the jobs of the future, drive the recovery from coronavirus and protect our beautiful planet for generations to come," Johnson said in a statement.

 

More than 70 world leaders from countries including China, India, Canada and Japan are due to unveil more ambitious climate commitments at the summit.

 

Britain would be the first major economy to commit to ending public finance for overseas fossil fuel projects.

 

"This policy shift sets a new gold standard for what serious climate action looks like," said Louise Burrows, policy adviser with consultancy E3G. "Britain now has a mandate to mobilise other countries to follow suit."

 

The UK Export Finance agency has offered guarantees worth billions of dollars to help British oil and gas companies expand in countries such as Brazil, Iraq, Argentina and Russia, Burrows said.

 

Johnson had faced particular criticism from campaigners for UKEF's role in backing French major Total's planned $20 billion liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique.

 

The government said the new policy would come into effect "as soon as possible" and would mean no further state support for oil, natural gas or coal projects overseas, including via development aid, export finance and trade promotion.

 

There would be "very limited exceptions" for gas-fired power plants within "strict parameters" in line with the Paris deal, the statement said.

 

(Reporting by Matthew Green, editing by Louise Heavens)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-12-12

 

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[scammed]

there is no economic incentive as low as oil prices are now,

might as well frame it as valor points and votes from commies

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You're on to something. Oil companies are permanently writing down the value of their assets. So it ain't about the pandemic.

Shell Takes $22 Billion Write-Down, Expecting Lower Oil and Gas Prices

Royal Dutch Shell PLC is writing down the value of its assets by up to $22 billion because of lower energy prices following the demand-sapping coronavirus pandemic...

The reassessment of asset values by two of the energy sector’s biggest companies is about more than a response to the pandemic and its impact on oil and gas prices, said Luke Parker, vice president, corporate analysis at consulting firm Wood Mackenzie. The actions signal that large amounts of oil and gas are likely to be left in the ground.

Shell Takes $22 Billion Write-Down, Expecting Lower Oil and Gas Prices - WSJ

 

The commies in charge of BP and Exxon have also written down the value of their assets.

[connda]

It works until it doesn't.  Globally, the world's nations better start plowing money into fusion reactors as green energy simply doesn't generate enough power to replace fossil fuels. Get fusion running an you'll light up the planet and a hydrogen-based source of fuel.

 

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18 minutes ago, connda said:

It works until it doesn't.  Globally, the world's nations better start plowing money into fusion reactors as green energy simply doesn't generate enough power to replace fossil fuels. Get fusion running an you'll light up the planet and a hydrogen-based source of fuel.

 

Nonsense. The majority of investment in electric power worldwide is now in wind and solar. Their cost is plummeting The cost of battery and other storage systems is falling. You're living in the past. It actually cost less to build new wind or solar than it does to just keeping running a coal,nuclear or gas plant.

[thaibeachlovers]

Soooooo, Britain which relies on fossil fuel is going to deprive other nations of the opportunity to make money off an essential resource.

 

I retract every post I ever made in support of Boris.

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21 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Soooooo, Britain which relies on fossil fuel is going to deprive other nations of the opportunity to make money off an essential resource.

 

I retract every post I ever made in support of Boris.

You mean you think fossil fuel projects should be subsidized?

[TopDeadSenter]

On 12/12/2020 at 8:04 PM, scammed said:

there is no economic incentive as low as oil prices are now,

might as well frame it as valor points and votes from commies

"The stone age did not end because the world ran out of stones"

Comment attributed to Shaikh Yamani, Saudi oil minister in 1973.

 

All the greens need to do is show the technologies that will replace fossil fuels and that they work unsubsidized and not made possible by fossil fuel burning technology to mine and manufacture green apparatus. Learn to walk before trying to run.

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2 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

"The stone age did not end because the world ran out of stones"

Comment attributed to Shaikh Yamani, Saudi oil minister in 1973.

 

All the greens need to do is show the technologies that will replace fossil fuels and that they work unsubsidized and not made possible by fossil fuel burning technology to mine and manufacture green apparatus. Learn to walk before trying to run.

Well, I got news for you. It's the hard-headed CEOs of the major energy companies who are permanently writing off vast amounts of their assets because they see where energy trends are heading.

As for buring fossil fuels to build green apparatus. To get there from here you gotta use the means that are currently available. Unless you have some way of traveling to the future to retrieve items we need here and now. If you do have a way to travel to the future, please share it with us.