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LONDON, Dec 6 (Reuters) – Friends of the Earth asked a London court on Tuesday to rule that the British government’s funding of up to $1.15 billion for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Mozambique is incompatible with the Paris Agreement on climate change. .
UK Export Finance (UKEF) has committed to direct loans and guarantees to banks to support the design, construction and operation of a $20 billion project led by French energy company TotalEnergies ( TTEF.PA ).
An environmental campaign group’s legal action over the decision failed in a lower court, but it is now challenging the ruling 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 that funding the project was consistent with “the United Kingdom’s commitments under the Paris Agreement”.
She said the project would “result in an overall increase in global emissions”, adding in court documents that the government had failed to measure “indirect downstream greenhouse gas emissions” from the project.
However, James Eady, representing Britain’s Department of International Trade, said in written arguments that the UKEF had correctly determined that LNG “can act as a transition fuel, displacing the use of more polluting fuels such as coal and oil.”
He added that the project had “the potential to lift millions of Mozambicans out of poverty” and that UKEF “rightly believes that the Paris Agreement imposes no restrictions on developed countries helping developing countries”.
TotalEnergies EP Mozambique Area 1 Limitada, which will operate the gas facility, and Moz LNG1 Financing Company Limited, which will finance the project, are interested parties in the appeal.
Adam Hepinstall, representing the two companies, said in court documents that Friends of the Earth’s arguments ignored key parts of the Paris Agreement, “such as poverty eradication.” [and] Sustainable Development”.
A TotalEnergies spokesman said the project “will deliver a range of social and economic benefits to Mozambique and is a key part of Mozambique’s objective to diversify its economy.”
Reporting by Sam Tobin Editing by Mark Potter
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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