COP deal to end foreign fossil fuel funding has key holdout

LONDON: The UK has corralled about 20 nations to pledge to stop funding foreign fossil fuel projects, though the diplomatic win is tempered by the omission of China and Japan.

A one-page statement will be unveiled at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, according to people familiar with the matter.

It isn’t binding and would still allow limited support for foreign fossil fuel ventures. But it marks a further tightening of the flow of money from public development banks to oil, gas and coal.

The win for the UK hosts of the climate talks is only a partial one as the deal is set to exclude some of the biggest funders of foreign fossil-fuel projects, including Japan, South Korea and China.

And the pact would only apply to new, direct public support for unabated fossil fuel energy projects – with exceptions in “limited and clearly defined circumstances.”

The countries and four financial institutions signing the statement are set to include Canada, the United States and Denmark – which announced a similar plan on its own on Wednesday.

The UK on Wednesday announced a separate pledge by dozens of institutions and countries to phase out coal power, including 18 nations, such as Vietnam, Poland and Chile, making such a commitment for the first time.

Under the pact, nations aim to stop the use of coal-fired power generation in the 2030s and 2040s, and agreed to end investments in the sector both domestically and overseas. Still, the plan appears to fall short of the UK hosts’ initial COP ambition to “consign coal to history.” — Bloomberg