{"id":712310,"date":"2010-04-08T18:21:29","date_gmt":"2010-04-08T22:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/climateprogress.org\/?p=22748"},"modified":"2026-10-04T12:09:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T16:09:20","slug":"u-s-abstains-on-vote-to-proliferate-coal-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/712310","title":{"rendered":"U.S. abstains on vote to proliferate coal in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-22754\" title=\"SA Coal Pic\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climateprogress.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/SA-Coal-Pic1.jpg?resize=245%2C185\" alt=\"SA Coal Pic\" width=\"245\" height=\"185\" \/>Today <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ustreas.gov\/press\/releases\/tg635.htm\">the United States abstained<\/a> on a World Bank vote to approve a $3.75 billion loan for South African utility Eskom to build a 4800 megawatt coal plant.  Ultimately, the loan was approved.  But the U.S. vote sends a clear signal that the U.S. government is not willing to accept business as usual \u2013 continuing a trajectory of unabated carbon pollution \u2013 without due consideration of the environmental consequences.\u00a0 CAP&#8217;s Kari Manlove has the story.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-22748\"><\/span>It is further encouraging that the U.S. vote is consistent with the Treasury Department\u2019s recently released guidelines for multilateral development banks\u2019 financial support of coal-fired power plants, as the Center for American Progress discusses in their report <a href=\"http:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/issues\/2010\/03\/world_bank.html\">Development Funding Done Right<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Last month the World Bank announced a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/cwire\/2010\/03\/22\/22climatewire-world-bank-helps-indonesia-increase-geotherm-67858.html\">$400 million loan to Indonesia<\/a> to develop its geothermal resources, and South Africa has acquired a similar loan to co-finance grid-connected solar thermal, utility-scale wind, energy efficiency, and solar water heaters.  Both of these loans are through the bank\u2019s Clean Technology Fund, which recently announced its intention to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.climateinvestmentfunds.org\/cif\/pf_2010_pressrelease_03_19\">mobilize $40 billion toward low-carbon growth<\/a> in developing countries.  Investments such as these build on the spirit of cooperation that emerged last December in Copenhagen between developed and developing countries to jointly move toward a global clean energy economy.<\/p>\n<p>The World Bank has a responsibility to show leadership in fostering large-scale investment in sustainable economic growth.  It should be using its resources to help developing countries choose low-carbon development pathways.  Despite the outcome, it is worth noting that the U.S. vote encourages more aggressive moves in this direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today the United States abstained on a World Bank vote to approve a $3.75 billion loan for South African utility Eskom to build a 4800 megawatt coal plant. Ultimately, the loan was approved. But the U.S. vote sends a clear signal that the U.S. government is not willing to accept business as usual \u2013 continuing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4391,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4821],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-712310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-2ZiS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4391"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712310"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":813922,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712310\/revisions\/813922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}