Tackling climate change and aligning government support behind clean growth industries is a top priority for the UK and that’s why as the UK government’s export credit agency, we’re committed to supporting businesses and projects in the renewable energy space.
With clean growth support at our heart, UKEF committed to going carbon neutral by 2050 ahead of COP26 and new targets mean that we’re increasing our support for green exports.
Our Climate Change Strategy 2021-24 pursues a ‘Focused Alignment’ strategy with Sustainable Development Goals. We’re taking a proactive approach to identifying projects and supply chains with Sustainable Development Goal-related impacts and recognising where we can provide support.
UK businesses have an important role to play in the global transition to a low carbon economy and UKEF is uniquely placed to support this strategy. Whether renewable energy is already a core part of a business’ strategy, or a business is considering transitioning over from work in the oil and gas sector, the opportunities are there and UKEF can help.
One way we’re supporting businesses as they embark on clean growth projects is through our Direct Lending Facility, a UKEF loan helping overseas buyers to finance the purchase of capital goods and/or services from UK exporters. This facility has allocated £2 billion specifically for clean growth projects in a bid to support more projects in the renewable energy space. In addition, we’ve developed our Export Development Guarantee to offer exporters of clean growth technology and services up to 10 years rather than five to repay UKEF-guaranteed finance issued under the product.
We’ve just announced backing for a £100 million working capital loan for Northumberland-based JDR Cable Systems to start building its new state-of-the-art subsea cable manufacturing facility. As a leading provider of subsea cable technology, the export potential for JDR is significant - global energy companies depend on high-performing and resilient cables to provide clean power created by offshore wind farms to land.
We’ve also financed three major wind projects in Taiwan by offering £500 million in financing since 2019, creating trading opportunities for UK renewable energy companies and supporting green jobs.
The Greater Changhua Offshore Wind Farm will power more than 650,000 households with East Anglia-based Seajacks shipping the material needed to install the turbines and Trelleborg’s applied technologies operation in the North West providing protection systems for the cables which connect the turbines to the mainland.
To learn more about how we’re supporting renewable energy and offshore wind projects, attend our sessions at the Global Offshore Wind 2022 : GO GLOBAL: Developing offshore wind in India, Supply Chain Studio, and Financing Taiwan’s largest offshore wind farm.