The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) today announced an agreement with several countries to ban export credits for coal-fired power plants, 10 days before the start of COP26 in Scotland.
“Participants in the OECD agreement on publicly supported export credits have agreed to end support for conventional coal-fired power plants,” the organization said in a statement.
The participants in the agreement, which was the subject of lengthy negotiations, are Australia, Canada, the European Union (EU), South Korea, the United States of America (USA), Japan, Norway, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Turkey.
The announcement comes more than a week before the opening of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in the Scottish city of Glasgow on October 31, a meeting of world leaders to discuss and decide on measures to keep the planet on a bearable warming path in the coming years.
China, a non-signatory to the agreement and the world’s largest public financer of coal-fired power plants in third countries, announced in September that it would stop financing plants abroad.
In concrete terms, signatory states to the OECD level agreement have committed to no longer providing export credits for new coal-fired power plants that are not equipped with carbon capture, utilization and storage systems, as well as for existing plants, with some exceptions.
Export credits can take the form of direct aid to companies doing business abroad or support for interest payments, says the OECD.
The formal entry into force of this measure should take place after the adoption of this provision by each of the signatory countries, “which is planned for the end of October”, the organization stressed.
