Energy & Science
COP Produces Pact to End Fossil-Fuel Funding; China Stays Out
- Agreement isn’t binding but does ratchet up pressure
- U.K. also announces coal deal that doesn’t include U.S.
Joe Biden addresses a press conference at the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference.
Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
More than 20 countries have pledged to stop funding foreign fossil fuel projects, though the impact of the deal is undermined by the absence of key countries.
The pact, whose signatories include Canada and the U.S., isn’t binding but aims to stop foreign fossil-fuel funding by the end of 2022. U.K. energy minister Greg Hands said it has the potential to shift more than $15 billion annually of public finance.