Back on Earth, Germany opens six new coal plants in 2013!
Utility Week reports:
The World’s largest public financial institution, the European Investment Bank (EIB), has committed to phasing out the funding for coal power plants.
Following a 10-month review, the EIB confirmed yesterday that it would introduce a new Emissions Performance Standard to be applied to all fossil fuel generation projects “to screen out investments whose carbon emissions exceed a threshold level.”
In a statement, the EIB said: “Gas is expected to remain a transition fuel to a low carbon energy system, and the Emissions Performance Standard will ensure that lending is restricted to projects that make a positive contribution to EU economic growth and are consistent with EU climate policy.”
Under the standard, new fossil-fuelled power plants would be able to emit 550 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour (gCO2/KWh).
BRICS Bank to the rescue.
All the more reason for developing nations to seek private-sector venture capital funding.
In order to attract private funding, from their own people or from other countries, would mean they need to be free enough for investments to have some chance of paying off.
This idea gets better every time I look at it.
The “World’s largest public financial institution” is making heavy financial bets on its political agenda. That almost never works out well in the long run.