German lender pulls out of coal investments

Germany’s KfW Group is pulling out of loans for new coal projects, joining other European development banks that have already followed orders of their governments to minimise exposure to the world’s most widely used power-station fuel.

KfW will no longer finance the exploration or mining of coal or lend to coal power plant projects, the lender said as it updated its investment code from four years ago. The firm hasn’t made any new investments in coal projects since then and holds less than €2bn in outstanding loans in the fuel.