Export Credit Guarantee Department campaign
Every year, a little known government department called the Export Credits Guarantee Department – or ECGD – underwrites certain UK exports. The support is often for activities in the most dangerous and politically unstable parts of the world.
The problem is that ECGD risks hundred of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money to underwrite these exports, and the industries it supports – like oil and gas production and aviation - are often the most damaging in terms of climate change and biodiversity loss.
In 2007, WWF discovered that ECGD had given a conditional, but legally-binding, offer of support for the world's largest oil and gas development off Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East. This development is adjacent to the feeding grounds of the critically endangered Western Pacific Gray Whale, of which only 120 individuals remain, and the breeding grounds of Steller's Sea Eagle.
If support had been provided, this government department would have had a role in pushing both species towards extinction. Is that how we want to see taxpayers' money spent? We don't think so. That’s why we have taken the campaign all the way to the High Court. And why we are pleased to report that, as a result of our campaign, the Sakhalin Energy Investment Company has now withdrawn its application for support from ECGD.
However, the way ECGD operates has not changed. It is still at liberty to support projects with equivalent consequences for the climate and biodiversity in the future. We are therefore continuing our campaign to make ECGD accountable to the British taxpayer, climate change and the natural world. We have recently secured an Environmental Audit Committee inquiry into ECGD, and are pushing for ECGD to report on the emissions associated with the projects it supports through an amendment to the Climate Change Bill. Find out more about the ongoing EGCD campaign