UKEF Sustainability Policy Statement
Published 1 February 2023
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UK Export Finance’s (UKEF) mission is to advance prosperity by ensuring no viable UK export fails for lack of finance or insurance, doing that sustainably, and at no net cost to the taxpayer.
We work in support of UK companies to give them the competitive advantage to succeed internationally, and wherever possible to finance and insure exports that contribute to the transition required to achieve both sustainability and economic growth, now and in the future.
We recognise that our activities and those of the UK exporters and overseas buyers we support can have direct and indirect sustainability impacts.
We align with the UK government’s support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
Applying international standards and international good practice[1], we seek to promote high standards of environmental and social performance, in a manner consistent with our level of support and leverage, and to maximise opportunities for positive impacts.
We take account of a range of factors in our decision-making, including relevant environmental, social and human rights impacts, climate change and the need for energy transition, financial crime issues, good governance and debt sustainability.
We are continuing to work to improve how we understand and drive the long-term sustainability of transactions and address both current and future sustainability and credit risks.
This is UKEF’s overarching Sustainability Policy Statement and is applicable to all our products and services. It is supported by our Policy and Practice on Environmental, Social and Human Rights due diligence and monitoring, approach to Financial Crime Compliance, annual Modern Slavery Statements, Climate Change Strategy and approaches to specific relevant policy areas.
Tim Reid
Chief Executive Officer
[1] Including the OECD Common Approaches and other OECD recommendations relating to the provision of export credits, the Equator Principles, the IFC Performance Standards and other relevant international standards.