Xi's announcement to the United Nations General Assembly will end the flow of cash from the world's largest public financier to foreign coal projects, and it comes on the heels of similar pledges by Japan and South Korea earlier this year.

"China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy, and will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad," Xi told the General Assembly. He did not lay out a timeline to end that financing, but the country has not directed any funding from its Belt and Road Initiative toward coal power plants so far this year.

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