China to Stop Building New Coal Power Plants Abroad

At the United Nations General Assembly on September 21, China’s top leader Xi Jinping announced that the country will stop building new coal power plants in other countries. The surprise news comes after South Korea and Japan (the second- and third-largest supporters of abroad coal projects after China) said they would stop funding projects earlier this year. The statement made no mention of China’s domestic coal use and development.

China is the world’s most ardent coal supporter as the biggest domestic producer and the largest financier of coal projects around the globe, according to the New York Times. The country built more than 3 times more new coal power capacity in 2020 than the rest of the world combined. It has funded coal-powered projects in more than a dozen countries and, at the time of the announcement, has 40 gigawatts of new coal projects still in development in 20 different countries.

Experts are hoping that the coming weeks will offer more details, as it hasn’t been announced if the projects in development will be completed or if private Chinese companies will still develop projects abroad.