France to rein in export guarantees for oil and gas industry
The French government will stop providing export guarantees to projects involving dirty forms of oil from next year, all oil in from 2025 and gas in from 2035, the finance ministry said.
France stopped giving export guarantees this year to projects where fracking and flaring were involved and also stopped support for coal projects.
In a second step, guarantees would be halted next year for projects involving heavy oil, shale oil and bitumen oil sands, affecting the creation of up to 700 new jobs, the ministry said in its proposal to parliament.
From 2025, public export guarantees would no longer be provided for the exploration and development of new oilfields, potentially at a cost of 1,800 jobs, followed by new gas fields from 2035, which could affect 3,000 jobs.
The ministry said the later date for gas was because that could help some countries with the transition to cleaner forms of energy.
It also proposed scrapping export guarantees for thermal power stations with emissions higher than the national median of the benefiting country from 2021.
The proposals will be submitted to parliament in the 2021 budget bill being considered by lawmakers.
Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by David Goodman
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