Laka Foundation

Publication Laka-library:
Financing disaster. How the G8 fund the Global Proliferation of Nuclear Technology (2001)

AuthorNIRS, CNIC, Urgewald
DateJune 2001
Classification 6.01.0.20/89 (IMPORTANCE WORLDWIDE)
Front

From the publication:

Executive Summary

During 2001 the guidelines for Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) from industrialised 
countries for developing environmental assessments when granting financial cover 
will be finally adopted. At present only a few agencies have to apply binding 
guidelines to assess the environmental impacts of the operations they financially 
support. These negotiations are being carried out both by the Organization for 
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECO) and by the G8. The 1999 G8 
Cologne Summit Communiqué stated that the heads of States undertook to "work 
within the OECD towards common environmental guidelines for export credit 
agencies ... by the 2001 GB Summit". This was reaffirmed in the 2000 Okinawa 
Summit Final Communiqué.

This review is long overdue, in particular in its relationship to the proliferation 
of nuclear technology, as the secrecy and unaccountability of ECAs is fundamental to 
the survival of the global nuclear power industry. In each of the G8 countries ECAs 
have been used to facilitate the proliferation of nuclear technology abroad, even as 
nuclear power has lost favour at home. This is particularly remarkable in the case 
of Italy, where nuclear power has been phased out for political and environmental 
reasons.

This report summarises the financial assistance given by ECAs and International 
Financial Institutions (IFIs) to the spread of nuclear technology and highlights the 
concentration of investment in two global regions. Firstly and most prominently 
China is the key country for the construction of new reactors, with over one quarter 
of the world's total. All of these reactors receive financial support from at least 
one ECA of a G8 country. The second region of importance is Eastern Europe, 
where part built reactors and additions to the original designs offer work to
Western contractors.

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