Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the compliance of CDC Group’s commitment to finance the Temane gas project in Mozambique with Government commitments to end overseas fossil fuel finance.

In July 2020, CDC launched its new Climate Strategy. Subsequently, in December 2020, CDC launched its Fossil Fuel Policy and Gas Guidance Tool, which is fully aligned with the UK Government's fossil fuel policy. The policy excludes investment in the vast majority of fossil fuel types with very limited exclusions.

Temane meets the conditions for Paris-aligned gas power as per HMG's fossil fuel policy and has been assessed in detail as per CDC's gas guidance which is consistent with those conditions. When operational, the Temane project is expected to meet the electricity needs of 1.5 million Mozambicans and support the creation of 14,000 jobs. It will support the energy transition and decarbonisation in Mozambique by allowing greater installations of renewables, as well as itself being technologically ready from inception to run on green hydrogen in future as and when that fuel source becomes available.

In Mozambique, in addition to Temane, Globeleq is developing solar (and battery storage) and wind projects, such as the ground-breaking Cuamba solar (plus battery) storage project which reached financial close in December 2021.