China isn’t the only one financing the global spread of coal power plants

In what was almost a throwaway line in his pre-recorded speech to the UN General Assembly, Chinese leader Xi Jinping made a new fossil fuels reduction pledge that many climate experts have been calling on China to make. “China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy things and will not build new coal fired power projects abroad,” Xi told the UNGA yesterday (Sept. 21). The announcement drew praise, including from UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, and climate experts such as Kevin P. Gallagher, director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University, and followed a pledge from US president Joe Biden to double climate funding for low-income nations to more than $11 billion through 2024.