# Xi tells UNGA that China will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad

Date: 2021

## The fact

On 21 September 2021 [Xi Jinping](/people/env-person-xi-jinping) told the UN General Assembly that China would step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy and would not build new coal-fired power projects abroad.

## Context

Policy banks and SOEs still had to unwind pipelines. Domestic coal plants are a neighbouring different file. He did not sit as every project lender. Later reporting tracked some remaining overseas coal exceptions; those would be other dates if separately stored.

The 2020 neutrality pledge is a neighbouring earlier UNGA speech. Domestic coal-capacity additions are neighbouring different instruments.

The General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, concurrently President of the People’s Republic of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, can set the Politburo agenda, nominate the State Council leadership, and command the armed forces. He does not write UN General Assembly resolutions, OHCHR assessments, WHO emergency-use listings, or Hong Kong ordinances by himself.

## Evidence and sources

United Nations carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is [fossil-fuel subsidies](/drivers/energy-fossil-fuel-subsidies) and decarbonisation: a completed overseas-coal pledge is a dated expected reduction in Chinese-financed coal abroad, with domestic coal still a separate file.

## What is established and what is not

Established: a 21 September 2021 UNGA pledge not to build new coal-fired power projects abroad.

Not established: that every already-committed overseas plant was cancelled that afternoon, or that domestic coal additions stopped.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Policy banks and SOEs still unwind pipelines. Host governments still choose their mix.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies Xi tells UNGA that China will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad, not a later speech about Xi tells UNGA that China will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. Xi tells UNGA that China will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad on 2021-09-21 is not a licence to treat every later United Nations communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor decree exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average Xi tells UNGA that China will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He made the pledge as head of state. Policy banks and SOEs still unwind pipelines. Host governments still choose their mix. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series. The National People’s Congress, the State Council, provincial governments, the People’s Liberation Army, Hong Kong’s executive, and foreign counterparties share specific files. Allegation is not a completed judgment. An OHCHR assessment is not a criminal conviction. A white paper is not a census. A UN pledge is not a delivered emissions path.

## People

- Xi Jinping: https://factrail.ai/people/xi-jinping

## Drivers

- Decarbonization and climate-mitigation policy: https://factrail.ai/drivers/env-decarbonization-policy
- Fossil-fuel subsidies: https://factrail.ai/drivers/energy-fossil-fuel-subsidies

## Sources

- https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-xi-says-china-will-not-build-new-coal-fired-power-projects-abroad-2021-09-21/
- https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/09/1100702

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/cn-no-overseas-coal-2021