Joint NGOs briefing paper: Coal finance: will the OECD lag behind emerging countries because of Japan?

While efforts within the OECD to limit Export Credit Agency (ECA) public support for coal projects have stalled due to claims that such restrictions would lead to a proliferation of "dirtier" projects from non-OECD countries like China, recent commitments and data prove these fears to be unfounded, according to a joint report published today by WWF, JACSES, Kiko Network, FOE Japan, Sierra Club and CoalSwarm. 

Indeed, China has just made a commitment to limit financing for coal projects domestically and internationally, and India has banned the construction of low efficiency subcritical coal plants. Such moves negate Japan's claims that public financing of higher efficiency coal plants is necessary to incentivize such technologies.

• In a September 2015 high level joint statement with the USA, China pledged to 'strictly control' financing of high-carbon projects domestically and internationally, making the Chinese commitment more ambitious than the latest OECD and G7 statements;
• New data analysis indicates that China is exporting higher-efficiency ultra-supercritical technology – the same technology Japan claims it needs ECA support to bolster;
• India has enacted policies banning the construction of subcritical coal plants.

In light of these developments, and with the COP21 climate conference fast approaching, there are no longer any excuses for delay. Adding any more new coal plants, no matter what their efficiency, is not in line with the internationally agreed objective of keeping global warming below 2 degrees. It is time for the OECD countries to take a leadership role by ending ECA support for coal and directing public resources instead to clean renewable energy technologies.

Coal is a major driver of climate disruption, and any argument that deploying highly-efficient coal technology can make a contribution towards climate mitigation is detrimental for staying below 2 degree because of the high-carbon lock-in over lifetime of any coal plant. 

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