Three major economies have been locking up carbon emissions for decades

China, Japan and the United States They have focused their foreign investment mainly on fossil fuel plants. This could lead to harmful emissions for decades, affecting global climate action. This is according to new research from several American universities.

The IPCC report on Monday confronted the international community with the facts: we must move away from carbon-intensive energy systems. However, China, Japan and the United States continue to pay for fossil fuel-based power generation.

Scientists at the University of Boston and Princeton discovered this after examining the foreign investment of three companies. Major financiers of the energy sector Under the microscope.

“It is important that countries control the financing of energy production from fossil fuels.”

“That funding is not properly aligned with global decarbonisation goals,” study lead author Xu Shen wrote on his blog.

Coal and gas

Bilateral funding from the three powers has significantly increased power generation capacity beyond their borders. Since 2005, they have paid for 233 gigawatts of new capacity. (By comparison, the total capacity of the Doyle and Dehenge nuclear power plants is 6 gigawatts) The majority of these – 60 percent in the case of China and the United States and 80 percent in the case of Japan – are based on fossil fuels.

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Chinese money mainly flows to coal projects. Japanese and American development banks and private investors mainly finance foreign gas power plants.

Only 15 percent of the additional capacity is based on renewable sources. For example, research shows that projects funded by three countries between 2000 and 2018 will release 24 gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by 2060. A gigaton weighs twice as much as all the people in the world.

Included

In this way, the money of the three major economies has contributed strongly over the decades ‘Carbon lock-in’ In developing countries, researchers say. Because funded fuel plants have a long lifespan, they will continue to emit greenhouse gases for at least several decades.

“It is important for countries to control foreign funding for fossil fuel power generation,” he said. Denise L. ம z சரல், Professor of Environmental Engineering at Princeton University who contributed to the study.

The world cannot accept the CO2 emissions of new fossil fuel power plants. Less developed countries cannot remain inactive as soon as fossil power plants are built. Although many coal-fired power plants are retiring, this does not apply to natural gas. Its funding is increasing. The finances of fossil fuel plants need to be converted to renewable energy to avoid the catastrophic stages of climate change, ”the professor said.