Environmental pressure groups will meet officials from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development today as they launch a campaign for tough social and environmental guidelines to be imposed on European export credit agencies.
The non-governmental organisations (NGOs) argue that European agencies are lagging behind the US and Japan in adopting environmental and social guidelines. As a result, they are often willing to back environmentally destructive projects, which displace communities and destroy livelihoods.
Export credits offered by the US Export-Import Bank, Germany's Hermes Guarantee and others are the largest source of government support for big infrastructure projects in the developing world, far outstripping support by the World Bank and other international financial institutions.
