In President Obama’s June 25 climate speech, he announced that the United States would no longer provide public financing for coal plants overseas, with the President noting that aid for coal plants would only come where “there’s no other viable way for the poorest countries to generate electricity.” It appears that his announcement has already had an impact on international development policy. Just three weeks after this announcement, the board of directors of the World Bank, an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries, embraced a new focus on sustainability.
