Five Nordic countries have followed in the footsteps of the US in committing to put an end to the provision of public finance for new coal-fired power plants overseas.
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden released a joint statement with the USA saying that except in rare circumstances, they will not provide financing for new coal plants abroad. They say that they will also "work together to secure the support of other countries and multilateral development banks to adopt similar policies".
The statement is part of a wider commitment to policies on global issues such as development, security, climate change and clean energy. In it the six nations acknowledge the importance of innovation in promoting energy efficiency and clean energy as well as the need for scaling up climate finance.
They also agree on "the importance of reaching an ambitious, comprehensive, fair, and inclusive" international climate agreement.
The move is a further indication of a reduced appetite for the financing of coal fired power generation projects in the multilateral funding and government development agency spheres. Both the World Bank and the European Investment Bank earlier this year pledged to stop financing for coal fired projects, while the EBRD is currently reconsidering its policy on lending for energy projects.
Conservation group WWF welcomed the move and called for other institutions to follow suit. It has also called on the Nordic countries to make a similar change in their national investments.
The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund is the world's largest, and has investments in coal and oil with emissions equivalent to more than 108 times the emissions of Norway, says WWF, which wants the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund to allocate five per cent of its portfolio to renewable energy.
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