5 November 2009: The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is issuing a set of guidelines to finance coal-fired power plants in order to ensure they use among the best available technologies to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. �
Specifically, the IDB will not finance what are known as “sub-critical pulverized coal” power plants, due to the lower efficiency of this technology and its resulting higher carbon dioxide emissions. The new guidelines also rule out Bank financing for plants using a technology known as “circulating fluidized bed combustion,” unless these plants meet a threshold of at least 36% net efficiency in converting fuel to energy. [IDB Press Release]