{"id":34711,"date":"2023-05-11T08:20:15","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T12:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saperemarketing.com\/clearpath\/?p=34711"},"modified":"2024-01-16T19:40:56","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T19:40:56","slug":"sharpen-u-s-clean-energy-trade-financing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saperemarketing.com\/clearpath\/our-take\/sharpen-u-s-clean-energy-trade-financing\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharpen U.S. Clean Energy Trade & Financing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The dual imperatives of addressing energy security and climate change are inherently international. The world needs more energy, and emissions know no borders. ClearPath sees a future where America and like-minded partners lead the world in addressing climate change by developing and deploying the most innovative, market-competitive clean energy technologies. U.S. emissions are a smaller and smaller part of the global total, now roughly 11%<\/a>, which emphasizes the need for the U.S. to work effectively with international partners and allies because our efforts at home will not be enough to solve our energy and climate challenges alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. has built a good track record, AND we need to do more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must be clear-eyed about the intense global competition the U.S. faces. For instance, since 2000 China has become a dominant player of global energy finance, issuing over $234 billion in loans for energy projects<\/a> to roughly 68 strategically-significant nations, with about 75% of that directed towards coal, oil, and gas development. For perspective<\/a>, from 2016-2021, China provided more energy project financing around the world than all major Western-backed Multilateral Development Banks combined. In order to compete effectively, the U.S. needs to make better use of the policy tools we already have, and design new ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Energy Finance Commitments by Major Development Finance Institutions, 2016-2021<\/span><\/p>\n\"\"\n

Official project databases of each development finance institution (DFI); China\u2019s Global Energy Finance (CGEF) Database, 2022. Boston University Global Development Policy Center.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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What\u2019s Past is Prologue<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Some of the most impactful tools in America\u2019s toolkit are international trade and financing policies, and this is nothing new. Institutions like the U.S. Export Import (EXIM) Bank were established in the wake of World War II<\/a>, engaging in the reconstruction of Europe and Japan, then evolved in the 1950s and \u201860s to help American exporters gain a foothold in emerging markets and later supported large-scale infrastructure projects in the \u201870s. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan signed the United States\u2019 first free trade agreement into law, the U.S.-Israel Free Trade Agreement<\/a>, which helped America solidify one of its closest strategic partnerships that now spans nearly every domain including commerce and clean energy technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world has changed a lot since the Reagan era. The expansion of China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative and Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion of Ukraine have underscored the need for United States international leadership, not only for our own energy security, but also that of our partners. This can be supported through exports and financing of technologies that reduce reliance on adversarial nations while reducing emissions. Concerted action with our partners and allies through trade and financing can be an essential counterweight to other nations that do not have our best interests, nor the world\u2019s climate, at heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n