Rockefeller Foundation Backs Coal Phase-Out via Carbon Credits
The Rockefeller Foundation is backing the world’s first coal-to-clean pilot project in the Philippines that will use carbon credits to enable early decommissioning of a coal-fired power plant.
The Coal to Clean Credit Initiative (CCCI), which has support from The Rockefeller Foundation, announced on Monday at the COP28 climate summit a new collaboration with ACEN Corporation to explore a pilot project in the Philippines that would use carbon finance to phase out a coal-fired power plant and replace it with renewable energy.
“This first-of-its-kind project will seek to inform plans for the CCCI to help phase out coal plants around the globe in line with the Paris Agreement,” The Rockefeller Foundation said in a statement.
The Rockefeller Foundation, set up by John D. Rockefeller in 1913, said back in 2020 that it had decided to divest from fossil fuels and not make any new investment in the industry.
The Rockefeller Foundation has already launched programs aimed at lowering the use of coal-fired power in Asia and speeding up the deployment of battery storage for renewable energy.
Commenting on the pilot project for an early retirement of a coal plant in the Philippines, Rajiv J. Shah, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, said “To retire coal plants, avoid those emissions, and create jobs, we need to create the right incentives for asset owners and communities and mobilize additional finance.”
“This innovative CCCI agreement will pilot a coal-to-clean credit methodology in the Philippines, one critical step toward breaking that overreliance and building a better future,” Shah added.
Developing countries in Asia and Africa say they would be eager to phase down – and ultimately phase out – coal if they had the necessary climate funding from the wealthy nations. But the climate funds pledged so far have been in the form of loans, which further burdens developing nations.
Indonesia and South Africa have recently backtracked on some of their coal reduction commitments, The Wall Street Journal reports.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
No comments:
Post a Comment