Battles and settlements in fossil finance: the UK and the making of the Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP)

This paper examines the Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP), a plurilateral initiative to end international public finance for fossil fuels and redirect support toward clean energy projects around the world. It traces the CETP’s emergence from a UK-led unilateral policy of banning export credit for fossil fuel projects, sparked by a domestic civil society campaign, to its plurilateralisation at COP26 in Glasgow and beyond. Drawing on 20 in-depth interviews and process tracing, the paper identifies three interrelated battle-settlement events to conceptualize this climate policy development as a conflict-driven, contested and highly contingent process. The analysis reveals how targeted advocacy, political entrepreneurship, and institutional leverage combined to transform UK policy into a novel form of international supply-side climate governance. By centring conflict, the paper contributes to emerging literatures on fossil fuel phase-outs, supply-side climate initiatives, and global climate governance. The CETP, it argues, offers a critical case of how to both disrupt fossil fuel lock-in and support energy transitions.