Friends of the Earth asked a London court this Tuesday to rule that the British government’s funding of up to US$1.15 billion for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Mozambique does not comply with the Paris Agreement on climate change.
UK Export Finance (UKEF) has committed to providing direct loans and guarantees to banks to support the construction and operation of a $20 billion project led by French energy company TotalEnergies.
A legal action against the decision by the environmental campaign group failed in a lower court, but is now appealing the decision in a three-day hearing at the Court of Appeal.
His lawyer, Jessica Seymour, told the court on Tuesday that the British government had wrongly decided to fund the project “with the UK’s commitments under the Paris Agreement”.
He said the project would “lead to a net increase in global emissions,” adding that the government failed to account for the project’s “indirect downstream greenhouse gas emissions” in court documents.
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