Perspectives Climate Research developed a tailor-made methodology to assess and compare export credit agencies (ECAs) and their governments regarding alignment with the Paris Agreement. In this case study, this assessment methodology was applied to the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM). As a result of the assessment, EXIM was rated as ‘Unaligned‘ with the Paris Agreement, at the upper threshold to ‘Some progress’.

The study demonstrates that despite important commitments made under the Biden administration, EXIM is still not in line with the Paris Agreement. Most notably, it is unclear how EXIM implements the U.S. government guidance on phasing out support for international unabated fossil fuels. This finding is aggravated by the current energy crisis and EXIM’s potentially important role in supporting domestic liquified natural gas (LNG) infrastructure.

Published right before COP27, this study provides recommendations for EXIM as well as for the U.S. government to fully align EXIM’s portfolio with the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

The work on the US is part of a series of assessments of major G20 country ECAs, and previous assessments were carried out on ECAs of the United Kingdom (UKEF), Canada, (EDC), Germany (Euler Hermes), the Netherlands (Atradius DSB), Japan (NEXI and JBIC) and Perspectives Climate Research is currently working on further case studies including Italy (SACE), France (Bpifrance) and South Korea (KEXIM).