ROME (Reuters) – The Group of 20 nations have agreed to completely stop financing the dirtiest coal-fired power plants abroad. This came in an initial version of a joint statement seen by the news agencies AFP and Bloomberg. All of these investments should stop at the end of this year.
The agreements revolve around coal-fired power plants where the technology is not used in any way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. According to Bloomberg, this is a severely watered-down statement. It was already expected that countries would no longer want to invest money in building dirty new coal-fired power plants across the border. But no firm agreements have been reached on domestic coal-fired power plants. Only the G20 countries pledge to support countries committed to phasing out investments in new coal-fired power plants. Previous versions would have contained concrete agreements on phasing out coal-fired power plants.
The G20 is made up of the 19 richest countries in the world and the European Union. They are responsible for emitting an estimated 80 percent of all greenhouse gases in the world. Australia is one of its members, and it is one of the largest exporters of coal in the world. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison previously pledged to keep coal mines open for as long as possible. Australia backs the ‘Paris’ climate target of net carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, but the country is reluctant to toughen up the 2030 climate targets.
