Coal news and updates

OECD formally approves ban on unabated coal

A landmark deal has been struck by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries to formally ban export credit support for unabated coal-fired power plants, but campaigners are calling for the group to widen the scope of the restrictions.

Participants to the OECD Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits have announced that an agreement has been reached in principle to stop all official export credit and tied aid support for new coal-fired power plants, unless they come equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.

Deals for existing coal plants will also be prohibited, except in instances where a transaction supports the supply of equipment that can abate pollution or CO2 emissions at a power plant.

The move comes roughly a month after several governments, including the US, UK, EU and South Korea, initially proposed the ban in an extraordinary meeting of the OECD Arrangement.

A few member countries reportedly expressed reservations about the proposal when it was tabled. An industry source told GTR at the time that Australia and Japan were unsure whether to consent to the ban.

But any differences in opinion now look to have been settled, and the OECD says the aim is for restrictions to come into effect by the end of October, once participating nations complete their “formal internal decision-making processes”.

Efforts to finally end export credit agency (ECA) involvement in overseas coal projects have been gathering pace in the past year, with G7 ministers having vowed in May to take “concrete steps towards an absolute end to new direct government support for unabated international thermal coal power generation by the end of 2021”.