An international non-governmental organization on Thursday slammed the London-based Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), which receives two-thirds of its funding from the UK government, for spending over $750 million financing fossil fuel projects across the globe
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th February, 2020) An international non-governmental organization on Thursday slammed the London-based Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), which receives two-thirds of its funding from the UK government, for spending over $750 million financing fossil fuel projects across the globe.
According to an investigation conducted by the Global Witness watchdog, PIDG provided funding for heavy fuel oil power plants in the African countries of Mali and Senegal in 2017, as part of an overall $749.8 million commitment to fossil fuel projects between 2002 and 2018. The group in 2019 also provided $54.8 million in funding for gas power plants in Togo and the Ivory Coast.
PIDG receives 70.7 percent of its funding from the UK government, which has given the group over $1 billion between 2002 and 2018, the watchdog stated.
The watchdog urged the UK government to ensure that PIDG stops supporting fossil fuel projects before the next UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) that will take place in the Scottish city of Glasgow in November. It also called on the UK government to use its overseas funding only for clean energy projects.
On January 24, The Guardian newspaper reported that more than 90 percent of all energy sector deals struck at a UK-Africa investment summit held earlier that week involved fossil fuels. The total value of the energy agreements signed at the summit was more than $2.6 billion.
During a speech in the UK capital of London on Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised his country's environmental record. Johnson stated that the UK was the first major economy in the world to enact a legal obligation to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
