Trump administration wants to fund new coal-burning plants overseas

The U.S. Department of Treasury announced that it will vote to support fossil fuel projects in developing countries through multilateral development banks (MDBs) such as the World Bank. This would be a major shift from the department’s position under President Obama, in which it opposed nearly all foreign coal-financing projects due to the negative environmental and economic consequences of climate change. The Trump administration’s push to “help countries access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently” promotes a pro–fossil fuel agenda on the international scene, ignores the poor economics of coal plants, and challenges the emissions-cutting goals of other nations under the Paris climate agreement.