German government supporting 12 billion euros worth of fossil fuel projects – NGOs

The German government has issued export credit guarantees to 12 billion euros’ worth of fossil fuel projects over the past few years, an investigation by NGOs Urgewald and DUH has found. According to figures obtained under the freedom of information act just over nine billion euros has gone towards gas projects since 2015; 2.5 billion into oil infrastructure, and 250 million into fossil fuel plants. The exact amounts fluctuate and have been rather low in recent years, Tagesspiegel Background writes. One particularly controversial project – the Arctic LNG 2 liquified natural gas development in Russia – is still in limbo. Urgewald expert Regine Richter demanded that support for fossil fuel projects be "completely discontinued" and said there was no justification for support of the infrastructure given the government's aim of carbon neutrality.

Environmental campaigners want the German government to phase out natural gas and have criticised projects such as the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, but many politicians and industry heads say the fossil fuel is an essential bridging tool for the energy transition.