COP26: Canada, U.S. commit to stop funding fossil fuel projects abroad
Global News
Canada and the United States are joining 18 other nations pledging to stop funding global fossil fuel projects in an effort to limit the impacts of climate change.
The United States, Canada and 18 other countries committed at the COP26 climate summit on Thursday to stop public financing for fossil fuel projects abroad by the end of next year, and steer their spending into clean energy instead.
Campaigners called the commitment a “historic” step in turning off the funding taps for fossil fuel projects. But it did not include major Asian countries responsible for the bulk of such financing abroad.
By covering all fossil fuels, including oil and gas, the deal goes further than a pledge made by G20 countries this year to halt overseas financing for just coal.
The 20 countries that signed the pledge include Denmark, Italy, Finland, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Gambia, New Zealand and the Marshall Islands, plus five development institutions including the European Investment Bank and the East African Development Bank.
“We will end new direct public support for the international unabated fossil fuel energy sector by the end of 2022,” they said in a declaration.
That would cover coal, oil and gas projects that are “unabated” – meaning that they burn fossil fuels without using technology to capture the resulting CO2 emissions.
The deal allowed for exemptions in unspecified “limited” circumstances, which it said must be consistent with the Paris Agreement’s target to cap global warming at 1.5C.
Countries that signed the pledge together invested nearly US$18 billion on average each year in international fossil fuel projects from 2016-2020, according to analysis by non-profit Oil Change International.
