World Bank has decided not to invest in any coal-related project, be it a coal mine or a thermal power plant. Rachel Kyte, the World Bank climate change envoy, said that continued use of coal was exacting a heavy cost on some of the world's poorest countries, in local health impacts as well as climate change, which is imposing even graver consequences on the developing world
The World Bank stopped funding new coal projects except in “rare circumstances” three years ago after the US, Britain and the Netherlands opposed its decision to finance a new coal-fired power plant in South Africa. It has said that the World Bank Group will only in 'rare circumstances' provide financial support for new greenfield coal power generation projects; these 'rare circumstances' refer to considerations such as the country in question having no other feasible alternatives to meet the basic energy needs of its people.
The global organization had said that coal was no cure for global poverty, rejecting a main industry argument for building new fossil fuel projects in developing countries. Rachel Kyte has said that “ We need to extend access to energy to the poor and we need to do it the cleanest way possible because the social costs of coal are uncounted and damaging, just as the global emissions count is damaging as well.”
Seventeen years ago the World Bank had termed coal as the backbone of the India's energy economy and agreed to lend $1.03 billion to Coal India (CIL) along with a Japanese lending agency, for taking up 24 coal mining projects under CILs subsidiary Northern Coalfields, with global sourcing of equipment.