We're gradually moving out of it, not going more into it. The world has moved on, can't dwell in the past.
Even China has moved on.
This report below was 2 years ago, and we know that China has developed its solar energy industry just as fast as it did EV
China's massive foreign investments in coal have given it the reputation as a lender of last resort for many African and Asian countries eager to boost power capacity to fuel economic growth. But developing countries reliant on China could now find their energy policies turned on their heads. At the UN General Assembly in September, Chinese president Xi Jinping announced plans to abandon building new coal power plants abroad.
China's withdrawal has been seen as the "death knell" for overseas funding of coal, and its ramifications could be huge
The announcement has been seen as the "death knell" for overseas funding of coal, and its ramifications could be huge.
As of September, China was considering financing 44 new overseas coal plants across 20 countries, says Christine Shearer, programme manager for coal at the non-profit Global Energy Monitor. That represents about a third of the world's planned coal plants that have not yet been built. In addition, Chinese state-owned power utilities and engineering companies directly own a total of 30 gigawatts (30 billion Watts) of projects outside China, according to a 2019 report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) co-authored by Shearer. That's an amount equivalent to the entire coal power capacity of Poland.
So far, the government has provided no details on when the policy will come into play, and it is also not clear exactly what it includes."The ambiguity of the announcement is also the beauty of it, a Chinese financier will have to think twice before any new investments can go ahead," says Byford Tsang, senior policy advisor for China at climate think tank E3G.
It's hard to overstate the impact that China pulling funding in a big way from overseas coal plants would have.
Many believe the impact of the announcement is already showing. Just days after Xi's speech, the Bank of China announced it would no longer fund coal projects from 1 October.
