Some 10GW of projects had previously been finalised and have not yet begun construction, according to the study released on Wednesday. The pipeline spans countries across Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.
The report helps illustrate China’s importance to curbing further growth in the use of the fossil fuel, and the need for specifics on Xi’s commitment – made at the United Nations General Assembly in September – that the world’s second largest economy will end support for coal developments overseas.
Xi did not clarify whether he was referring to both the financing and construction of new coal plants, and what would become of existing projects at various stages of progress.
“There is a transparency problem for China’s overseas coal deals,” said Wawa Wang, programme director at Just Finance. “It makes the monitoring of critical information specific to project appraisal, project status and financial disclosure difficult.”
Read the article in full: South China Morning Post