The former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said he was deeply concerned that the UK’s export credit agency had provided billions of pounds in recent years to support businesses involved in oil and gas schemes around the world. ‘These figures and policies are hard to reconcile with the UK’s commitments under the Paris agreement,’ said Ban, referring to the international climate deal he forged in 2015 as UN chief. ‘The time has come for the UK to change course, in the interests of the whole world,’ he wrote in a comment for the Guardian. Pray that the Government’s priority, at home and abroad, will be to forge opportunities for UK businesses to resist investing in or funding fossil fuel projects. Recent projects supported by the UK include oil and gas fields off the coast of Ghana, a major gas pipeline in Oman, and software for an oil firm in Argentina.