Overseas Development Assistance: Fossil Fuel Subsidies Debate

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Department: Department for International Development

Overseas Development Assistance: Fossil Fuel Subsidies

Lord Collins of Highbury Excerpts
Tuesday 15th May 2018

(5 years, 10 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Bates Portrait Lord Bates
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The noble Baroness makes a good point. As she rightly said, the CAFOD report refers to 2010-14. That precedes the SDGs, which have brought about a whole host of changes in how we promote renewable energy, and another change was the Paris Agreement on climate change. The numbers she referred to also include UK export finance, which supports the UK’s oil and gas industry, but it is not overseas development assistance. We do not use ODA to support fossil fuel subsidies at present.

Lord Collins of Highbury Portrait Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)
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My Lords, one of the key things is that the CDC has a five-year plan—the Government have ploughed billions into it—and a lot of the existing investments include fossil fuel investment. What is the Minister doing to ensure that, within the CDC’s five-year investment plan, we are not just not investing in fossil fuels but taking a proactive approach to investment in renewables? That is the solution. These countries need energy.