Cutting Coal Investment: The G20 Brings A Big Change
Nearly all development financing that is available internationally is now inclined towards reducing or cutting coal investment after the move that China took and the Group of 20 (G20) to stop extending support to new projects overseas, as shown by the latest research on Tuesday. If you are wondering about coal financing meaning, it is the financing of coal to operate in the power sector.
Just before the latest round of talks regarding climate change started in Glasgow, as pledged by the nations who joined the G20 Summit on Sunday to cut off the finance for all the power plants that were fired by coal overseas. It abided by a similar commitment that the Chinese President Xi Jinping made to the UNGA (United Nations General Assembly) in September 2021.
As per the latest research released by the Global Development Policy Center of Boston University, the G20 pledge implies that 99% of all development finance entities are committed to cutting coal investment and bringing in support for renewable matters. According to Rebecca Ray, who is a senior researcher at the GDP Center,
"If these institutions live up to their commitments, it will be easier for developing countries to find official finance for renewable energy and coal power phase-out than for building new coal-fired power plants."
As per the report, only three important “holdouts” stay – the Islamic Development Bank, the Development Bank of Latin America, and the New Development Bank even though many of the important shareholders in the above mentioned institutions were a part of the G20 pledge.
The September announcement that Xi of China would no longer be associated with overseas coal projects was the most prominent change as of now, denying the power that is fired by the coal of its largest financial backers that include the China Development Bank and also the Export-Import Bank of China, the study asserted.
The decision seems to have had an instant effect on the financial institutions of the country, with the Bank of China eager to end the latest overseas power projects and coal mining that is starting in October. One expert who is associated in drawing up the instructions to decarbonize the belt of China and also Read Investments asserted that the financial institutions of China were sound about the waning demand for power that is fired by coal, making it convenient for Xi’s order to be enacted. According to an expert,
"They are quite serious about it. They are not looking for excuses to continue the projects; they are looking for reasons not to continue."
The Bottom Line
With coal already fighting to compete with the renewable resources and various analysts predicting that the industry will finally comprise billions of dollars worth of “standard assets”, the decision made by China of cutting coal investment and pulling out portrayed a rare design of economic, climate, and political interest, analysts asserted. According to analysts,
"The economics have changed, and their experience with financing coal with the Belt and Road Initiative wasn’t good – there are already issues with host countries defaulting on debt. I think they now have the political signals (to stop investing) that they have been crying out for all along."
