According to new research published by Oil Change International and Friends of the Earth US, on which Legambiente and Recommon collaborated, Italy provided 2.8 billion dollars in public financing for fossil fuels between 2019 and 2021. According to the report, our country is falling behind others in fulfilling a common pledge to terminate public funding for overseas fossil fuel projects by the end of 2022, which was adopted during the global climate summit in Glasgow last year. Italy is the world's sixth largest provider of international public finance for fossil fuels, ahead of Saudi Arabia and Russia, which are ranked eighth and ninth, respectively. According to the report, which examines the public finances for fossil fuels in the G20 countries, Italian funding for the most polluting sources flowed largely through the Italian export credit agency, Servizi Assicurativi del Commercio Estero (SACE) (Foreign Trade Insurance Services, in english). This type of preferential fossil financing helps to leverage additional investment for proposed projects, increasing the likelihood of completion.
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