Elizabeth Bast is the executive director of the advocacy group Oil Change International.

As world leaders gather in Baku to negotiate global climate finance, a final chance arises for the Biden administration to consolidate a global climate victory.

This week, OECD governments are in Paris to negotiate a deal that could put an end to 41 billion dollars in annual financing of oil and gas exports – and above all, this agreement would be safe from any political reversal, even under the future Trump administration.

This would be a critical step to help unlock broader discussions about the billions of dollars in grant-based climate finance that rich countries owe to the South.

The agreement proposed by the OECD would be particularly powerful because of its binding nature. This could only be reversed if all negotiating countries agreed to backtrack, effectively making it “Trump-proof.”

Decisive moment

For Biden, as outgoing president, this represents a final opportunity to implement his 2021 executive order promising to end international financing of fossil fuels. The majority of OECD countries, including the EU, UK, Canada, Norway, New Zealand and Australia, have already defended a proposal to end financing of oil and gas exports and are ready to reach an agreement.

Biden’s actions This week will make or break this progress.

High-level EU officials have already contacted the administration to ask it to make the final decision on a deal so that it proposal can cross the finish line. However, the power of the Biden administration is now absolutely necessary to get major laggards, including South Korea and Turkey, across the finish line.

We have already seen the power of U.S. multilateral leadership in export finance. In 2015, the Obama administration successfully championed a policy at the OECD to end funding for coal-fired power plants – a commitment the first Trump administration could not back out of.

Now Biden has the opportunity to replicate that success with oil and gas, creating another permanent guarantee for climate progress.

Pushing to get public money out of fossil fuels

This potential agreement builds on encouraging developments in international energy financing.

The Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP), launched at COP26 in Glasgow, has already enjoyed remarkable success. Its 41 signatories, including major fossil fuel financiers such as Canada, Germany and Norway, have committed to ending their international public financing of fossil fuels. And most signatories followed through, helping to reduce international financing of fossil fuels. up to two thirds – about $15 billion a year.

Although these amounts may seem small, this change has an outsized impact. Government financial institutions shape energy markets by signaling government priorities.

Public financing, often provided at below-market rates, reduces financial risks for private sector investors and increases the chances of projects being realized. Indeed, 82% of LNG production over the last decade benefited from public support from the G20 government’s Export Credit Agencies (ECAs).

Indonesian company Pertamina operates an oil refinery that last year received support from the U.S. Export Credit Agency. Photo: Paulus Daniel

The timing is crucial: it is the last chance for the Biden administration to meet its international commitments to end international public financing of fossil fuels.

The International Energy Agency’s Net Zero roadmap watch that global electricity systems must be virtually free of fossil fuels by 2040 to maintain a 50% chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C. No new investment in upstream gas projects or LNG infrastructure can be justified in this scenario.

A step towards an ambitious agreement for COP29

This OECD agreement would also help consolidate other victories at the COP29 negotiations in Baku, where countries must commit to providing substantial climate finance, including supporting a just transition away from fossil fuels.

Rich countries owe billions of dollars in grant funding to the Global South for climate action. Developed countries say they have no money and that large sums of private finance mobilized through small amounts of public finance must cover mitigation financing needs, including for an energy transition.

But this makes the countries of the South pay for a crisis that they did not cause. Experience with this approach shows that it fails to mobilize the necessary sums, that it aggravates unsustainable debts and that it does not reach the countries and sectors that need it most, such as public transport and transition support for workers and communities dependent on fossil fuels. This highlights that grant finance is needed not only to address loss, damage and adaptation, but also for a just energy transition.

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The world has enough money to finance the climate action that is urgently needed to make the planet livable. Just the 10 richest people have a combined wealth of more than $1 trillion.

Analysis from Oil Change International (OCI) shows that by ending the supply of fossil fuels – including striking a deal at the OECD – making polluters pay and changing the unfair rules of global finance , countries can mobilize well over $5 trillion for climate action at home and abroad. as well as other public policies.

The opportunities to build a world with cleaner air, good quality jobs, comfortable housing, affordable energy bills and self-reliant communities are there to be seized.

According to the IPCC, phasing out fossil fuels is technically feasible and relatively inexpensive. Solar and wind energy are already more affordable than fossil fuels in most parts of the world. They do not introduce additional volatility due to increased climate damage or fiscal instability and create a more secure energy system in an unstable era where fossil fuels are often controlled by dictators and autocrats.

The next few days bring crucial opportunities. Right now in Paris, Biden is expected to support a ban on OECD oil and gas export financing. In Baku, countries must adopt an ambitious new climate finance target. It is time for governments to stop defending the interests of fossil fuels and fulfill their duty to protect people and the planet.