Britain has joined an international push to stop foreign aid being used to fund the building of coal-fired power stations in poor countries.
Energy Secretary Ed Davey said it made no sense to help create highly-polluting facilities overseas while cutting carbon emissions at home.
Under the initiative, the UK will join the United States in voting against any proposals by multilateral development banks (MDBs) to fund such projects and seeking sufficient support from other countries to ensure they are blocked.
The only exception will be cases where there was a “compelling“ poverty-reduction case in the very poorest states, no economically-feasible alternative was available and there was a credible plan to move to greener energy.
There has been no direct UK funding of foreign coal-fired power stations since 2002 but taxpayers’ money has continued to be used to fund more polluting energy plants via MDBs.
Mr Davey made the announcement at the latest round of international climate change talks in Warsaw, Poland.
“It is completely illogical for countries like the UK and the US to be decarbonising our own energy sectors while paying for coal-fired power plants to be built in other countries,” he said.
“It undermines global efforts to prevent dangerous climate change and stores up a future financial time bomb for those countries who would have to undo their reliance on coal-fired generation in the decades ahead, as we are having to do today.”
“Like the US, the UK recognises that there will be exceptions. We need to take account of new technologies such as carbon capture storage and the very poorest countries where there are no alternatives.
“But many developing countries will soon find solar and similar energy technologies will become cheaper not just cleaner”.
US president Barack Obama included an end to Washington’s support for public financing of new coal plants in the world’s poorest countries in his climate action plan announced earlier this year.
The World Bank has agreed to halt funding in all but “rare circumstances”, the European Investment Bank has introduced tougher emissions standards and Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden signed a joint declaration with the US in September.
Mr Davey said the Warsaw conference was an “absolutely critical” stage towards securing an international greenhouse gas reduction deal at next year’s gathering in Paris.
But the talks were hit by a walk-out of developing countries in an increasingly bitter row over their demands for developed nations to accept more responsibility for climate change and provide more financial help to deal with the effects and help “green” poorer economies.
The UK has made a £50 million contribution to the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) to help with adaptation such as water management, flood protection, drought-resistant crops, improved irrigation and water supply and weather forecasting and early warning systems.
In the wake of the devastation wreaked by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, Mr Davey said rich nations had a “moral duty” to help countries prepare for increased instances of extreme weather.
“Our climate change challenge is both to help prevent further damaging climate change, but also to help the poorest people from the effects of climate change that is already happening,” he said.
“This funding to help people adapt to our harsher climate conditions and this is a vital part of tackling poverty worldwide.”
David Nussbaum, chief executive of WWF-UK, said: “We’re encouraged that in this announcement, the UK Government has recognised that coal is a feature of our past, rather than a presence in our future.
“A growing international movement is now pressing for investment to be directed to sustainable sources of energy.
“This announcement reinforces the momentum away from a polluting fuel which threatens our shared climate, and sets us on the path to a clean and secure energy future.”
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