The World Bank, Canada and the UK on Thursday announced “financial, technical and advisory support” for developing countries that intend to move away from coal, towards renewable energy.

The Canadian government has pledged CAD $275 million to fund the Energy Transition and Coal Phase-out Programme. The UK has pledged £20 million to the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme (ESMAP), which is a “global knowledge and technical assistance programme of the global financier.

In parallel, the World Bank has also launched a report titled “Managing Coal Mine Closure: Achieving a Just Transition for All” which outlines the lessons learned from coal mine closures to date and steps that governments could take to minimize economic distress.

The UK’s Minister for Energy and Clean Growth, Claire Perry, has said the country has a lot of experience in “powering past coal” and has gone 1,700 hours this year without coal.

Meanwhile, a report titled ‘Coal Transition in India’, produced by a IDDRI, a Paris-based independent research organisation and the IIM, Ahmedabad, was circulated at the COP24 climate conference here.

The report talks of the inevitability of coal remaining India’s energy mainstay in the foreseeable future, and estimates that if the 220 billion tonnes of reserves under India were to remain unutilised, it would mean sacrifice of value of $6.7 trillion. The report talks of means to improve efficiency of coal plants.