Belgium and France stop foreign investments in coal, oil and gas. In doing so, an increasing number of countries are in line with a British proposal presented at the Glasgow climate summit. The Netherlands is also on board, as are Canada, the US and most other major investors in Europe.
The Glasgow climate summit is officially in the final day – and wrangling over all sorts of details is still continuing.
But already it is clear what the most remarkable result is: political recognition that global investment in fossil fuels will have to stop if the world is to achieve the Paris targets. This message came from the International Energy Agency (IEA), among others, prior to the climate summit.
It is also expected that fossil fuels will be mentioned by name for the first time in the joint final declaration, at the end of the climate summit. For 30 years, this has met with political opposition from countries that export coal, oil and gas.
Official agreement on this final declaration should be reached on Friday, but experience has shown that negotiations on all sorts of details sometimes turn into night work, or even run for several days.
