Brussels, 26/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 26 November, the Council of the EU approved the new rules agreed on 17 November by the major industrialised countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) - Australia, Canada, South Korea, US, Japan, Norway, New Zealand, Switzerland and the EU, to limit their support for exports of the most polluting coal-fired electricity plants.
The agreement of 17 November sets out the financial terms and conditions that will apply to export credits for coal-fired electricity generation projects from 1 January 2017. Official support for coal-fired power plants will thus be banned or phased down, with a view to significantly reducing the use of less efficient coal-fired power plants (see EUROPE 11434).
The new rules will enter into force on 1 January 2016 and will be subject to a compulsory re-examination in 2019, in an effort to strengthen them in light of the progress made in climate science and electricity production technology, as well as developments in the action taken at national levels.
A Council press release indicated: “This is an important EU contribution for the COP21 negotiations on climate change, which start in Paris on 30 November 2015. It marks a further step in work ongoing since 2012 in aligning export credit policies with climate change objectives”. The Council emphasised that “the EU has consistently pushed for an ambitious outcome” over the two years of OECD discussions about this agreement. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)