China will stop funding coal projects overseas, President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday, ending a major source of support for a dirty energy contributing to climate change.
Addressing the UN General Assembly, Mr. Xi made the promise as he vowed to accelerate efforts to help the world battle the climate crisis.
“China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low carbon energy and will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad,” Mr. Xi said in a pre-recorded address.
“We should foster new growth drivers in the post-COVID era and jointly achieve leapfrog development, staying committed to harmony between man and nature,” he said.
China has gone on an infrastructure-building blitz around the world as part of its Belt and Road Initiative, and until now has been open to coal projects.
In a letter earlier this year, a coalition of non-governmental groups said that the state-run Bank of China was the largest single financier of coal projects, pumping $35 billion since the Paris climate agreement was signed in 2015.
