BRUSSELS: Belgium provided nearly $15 billion over a decade from 2003 to 2013 to fund exports of coal-fired power plant and coal mining technology, data seen by Reuters shows, defying calls to end subsidies for the most polluting of the fossil fuels.
A document prepared late last year by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), marked confidential, comes the closest yet to providing official figures on how much the group’s 34 developed countries provide technology for coal industries outside their own economies.
Climate campaigners have been trying for years to collect data as they demand that governments outlaw all fossil fuel subsidies, particularly for coal, which on average emits twice as much carbon dioxide as natural gas.
The European Union, whose member state France hosts U.N. climate talks this year, has said it will end government domestic subsidies for coal plants by 2018. But the future of developed world subsidies for exporting technology to the industry is still a matter of hot debate.
The subsidies provided via export credits, or preferential loans, guaranteed by governments — will be discussed by European Union technical experts at a closed door meeting in Brussels later this month.
