In July, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged nations to stop financing the coal industry.
"Coal has no place in Covid-19 recovery plans," he said via video link during an online summit hosted by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
In September, Chinese President Xi Jinping promised that the world's biggest polluter of greenhouse gases would go carbon neutral by 2060. Speaking via video link to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, he called for a "green revolution;" this was the first time China had issued concrete goals to reach net zero carbon emissions.
In 2018, Xi outlined a major push for green development in Africa as part of his global infrastructure policy, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Thirty-eight Sub-Saharan countries have signed on, hoping for improved infrastructure and energy development.
But despite these promises to phase out dirty, high-carbon projects at home and abroad, Chinese banks and companies are still financing seven coal plants in Africa like the one planned for the Ekumfi district, with 13 more in the pipeline, mostly south of the Sahara.
It was the China-Africa Development fund that was supposed to finance the coal power plant in Ghana, a private equity fund entirely backed by China Development Bank, a state government policy bank.
