With less than five months to go until a key international climate change conference, leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized nations pledged Sunday to stop financing new coal plants beyond their borders by the end of this year.
“G7 countries account for 20% of global carbon emissions and we were clear this weekend that action has to start with us,” U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said at the end of the summit in Cornwall, England, on Sunday.
But with a loophole allowing for investment in coal plants that utilize controversial carbon capture and storage technology — yet to be proven economically or environmentally viable on a large scale — and no deadline set for G7 members to phase out at coal at home, questions remain as to how effective it will be in curbing greenhouse gas emissions.