The United States is abandoning new fossil fuel projects — at least overseas. On Thursday, 20 nations including the U.S., United Kingdom, and Canada announced a commitment to end all public financing for fossil fuel projects abroad by the end of 2022. That pledge calls for the money that would have gone to extracting oil and other fossil fuels to instead be spent on clean energy expansion.
The Aligning International Public Finance With the Clean Energy Transition agreement is a significant one, and one that is coming just in the nick of time. Earlier this year, the International Energy Agency published a report that warned new fossil fuel exploration needs to come to an end by next year if we have any shot at achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and avoiding the worst effects of climate change. With these 20 countries on board, there will be significant momentum toward meeting that moment — though more major players still need to join the effort.
