The Netherlands will suspend foreign investment in coal, oil and gas

A spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs said this.

The declaration was signed

It is about the UK plan to close next year, among other things, export credit insurance and loans for oil drilling and gas plants. Major investors such as the United States and Canada have already signed the declaration. European countries such as Denmark, Sweden and Italy also agreed and the Dutch Finance Corporation (FMO) for developing countries decided to sign the report on its own initiative.

Millions are insured

Known as export credit insurance, the Dutch government assists companies participating in fossil projects abroad. These government insurance policies exist because large plans in other countries are often not insured by businesses. The government then takes action.

The sum insured is hundreds of millions of euros per project. For example, the Netherlands is assisting Van Oord, a maritime service provider involved in a major natural gas project in Mozambique, by insuring 900 900 million. This is done through the Atradius DSB, an organization managed by the Ministry of Finance.

Stopping financial assistance to fossil fuel projects abroad, as agreed in the Paris Climate Agreement, will help control global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees.

The turn of the Cortecker cabinet

Initially, the Netherlands did not join the group of countries that said it would end with this support by the end of 2022. It was seen as an option for the new cabinet, which brought the outgoing ministers under criticism from Militofenci and left-wing political parties. The new cabinet will likely include the same parties that were in the old cabinet.

Outgoing Prime Minister Rutte said today: “This is a solid decision. So we wanted to leave it to the new cabinet. But then came the critical reactions from politics and the community. Now the summit is in Glasgow, they said. It’s really a good argument. , Let’s go down now. ”

Critics of the previous Dutch position are happy. “This position is completely unacceptable, but still: this is good news,” said PvdA member Joris Tijsen. He praises the Secretary of State in charge, Dylan Yesilkos: “Good,” says the Social Democrat.

Political reactions

According to Raul Boucke (D66), the cabinet decision is “the only good choice for our clean future and our economy”. On Twitter, the MP writes: “We want, to lead, and to invest in the future instead of the fossil techniques and fuels of the last century.”

Esther Owhand, leader of the Animal Party, says the climate change in Amsterdam on Saturday was the reason for the turnaround. “Hoppa! # Climate March is a big hit”, he says. “Cabinet submits to pressure from tens of thousands of protesters. Netherlands demands climate action, now!” GroenLinks MP Tom van der Lee called the decision “evidence that climate action is helping together.”