Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether she has plans to end UK Export Finance support for fossil fuel projects.

At the UK-Africa Investment Summit in January we announced an end to HMG support for thermal coal mining and coal power plant overseas, and we continue to keep our approach to other fossil fuel investments and financing overseas under review.

UK Export Finance (UKEF) is obliged to consider all requests for its support to UK exports in all sectors. This includes the oil and gas sector, but also many other sectors such as renewables and green growth.

UKEF is helping to drive UK content into overseas renewables and green growth projects across the globe and has been proactively developing the breadth of its support for these sectors. This is supported by £2 billion of direct lending for UKEF, which was announced in the Spring Budget, to support UK exports to these sectors.

The support provided by UKEF to UK exporters takes the form of direct loans, guarantees and insurances for which premiums are charged and, for which, there is no net cost to the taxpayer.