Counting the Carbon in Overseas Investments

By Kirk Herbertson on governance

In a landmark settlement, two U.S. government agencies are now required to consider the climate change impacts of overseas financing.

The environmental NGOs Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, along with the city of Boulder, Colorado, originally brought the suit to court in 2002. They alleged that the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) provided more than $32 billion in public financing for overseas projects that—between 1990 and 2003—cumulatively produced CO2 emissions, equivalent to over 7% of the world’s annual emissions in 2003. Three California cities—Arcata, Santa Monica, and Oakland—later joined the suit, arguing that the climate change caused by these overseas projects would harm them.