The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will scrap most assistance for coal-fired power plants, joining the World Bank and the U.S. in a retreat from supporting the most polluting fossil fuel.
The lender’s board voted today on a new investment strategy that includes the policy on coal financing, the London-based EBRD said. Funding of power plants that burn the fuel will now go ahead only in “rare and exceptional circumstances,” said Head of Energy and Natural Resources Riccardo Puliti.
“We cannot use carbon without having a thought about what the impact of climate change is going to be,” Puliti said in an interview in London. “There is a climate-change problem, and there are actions to be undertaken in order to solve it.”
The movement to end financing for coal plants is snowballing as national governments and international development banks intensify efforts to fight climate change by targeting a fuel that produces about double the amount of carbon dioxide than natural gas. The World Bank and European Investment Bank already have announced plans to shun most coal investments. Last month, Britain joined a U.S. initiative to do so.