Carl Pope, the former executive director and chairman of the Sierra Club published an article on the very topic last week as the World Bank and the US government announced they wouldn’t fund coal anymore.
But this week, there was another third blow on financing coal. As The Guardian reported : ” The European Investment Bank (EIB), the main lending arm of the European Union, has decided to stop financing most coal-fired power plants. “
The EIB mostly lends money to European nations. I guess this will make it difficult for Eastern European nations to finance new coal-fired plants.
Here is an extract from The Guardian article :
New and refurbished coal-fired power plants will not be eligible for funding unless they emit less than 550 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour (gCO2/kW), the EIB said on Wednesday, which could be met either by a combined heat and power plant or one that also burns biomass.
“Adoption of the new lending criteria represents an important step forward in the European Investment Bank’s commitment to energy investment that supports EU policy and reflects the urgent investment challenges currently facing the energy sector,” Mihai Tanasescu, EIB vice president responsible for energy lending, said in a statement.
The EU lender also said it could tighten the emissions standard in the future to ensure its lending criteria are consistent with EU climate policy and create jobs across Europe.
This is the third major support coal loses in a month. It sure is a tidal change. This year could well stay in the history books as the end of the beginning of the fight against climate change.
I’d like to conclude however that even if these news are great as new coal fired plants will be very few to come, there are still thousands of them polluting our air, water and soil around us.