G20 Countries Finance Coal Projects in Developing Countries Despite Commitment to Paris Accord

A number of G20 countries, including China, Japan, South Korea and Germany, are continuing to fund highly polluting coal mining projects despite their commitments to the Paris Accord which in theory obligates them to lower their carbon footprint. None of these G20-funded coal projects are based within those countries’ borders, however; they are all located in developing nations such as Indonesia, Vietnam and India, technically contributing to the developing nations’ carbon footprints instead of those of the G20 countries. The G20-funded projects are large in scale, averaging at $800 million per project.

Courtesy: National Resources Defense Council

NRDC blogger Han Chen finds this thinly veiled attempt at remaining in compliance with the terms of the Paris Accord to be against the spirit of the agreement, “If G20 nations are serious about their Paris Agreement goals, they should not be exporting their highly polluting technologies to developing countries.” Read more here.