(Bloomberg) -- Banks including HSBC Holdings Plc, NatWest Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc have committed to ending support for new coal power plants, part of a U.K. initiative to phase out the biggest contributor to climate change.
The lenders will end all investment in new coal power generation domestically and internationally as part of the Powering Past Coal Alliance, according to a U.K. government statement late Wednesday.
“The money is at the table, the private sector is moving,” NatWest Chief Executive Officer Alison Rose said in an interview Tuesday.
The 190-strong coalition includes 18 countries -- spanning Chile, to Poland to Vietnam -- committing for the first time to scrap and not invest in new coal power. The ‘Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement' commits major economies to phase out coal power in the 2030s, with 2040 set as a deadline for the rest of the world.
But India and China, both vast emitters of coal, are notably absent from the release, raising the question of how much meaningful change can be enacted without a buy-in from two of the world's biggest polluters.
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