Chinese firms funding coal plants offshore as domestic curbs bite.

China has become a key backer for coal-fired power globally, funding more than a quarter of all new plants being developed outside its borders even as it clamps down on the polluting fuel at home, a study published on Tuesday said.

The top destinations are Bangladesh, Vietnam, South Africa and Pakistan, and about a quarter of the proposed capacity would use technology no longer allowed in China, the report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), a US-based think-tank, said.

'China is taking very forceful steps to slow down the increase in coal-fired power facilities in China, but is looking to take that capacity and sell it overseas,' said Melissa Brown, IEEFA's energy finance consultant and an author of the report.

China, the world's biggest energy consumer, has been investing heavily in alternative fuels in order to cut its dependence on coal, a major source of smog as well as climate-warming carbon emissions.

It has closed down ageing mines and power plants, with the aim of cutting the fuel's share of total energy consumption from 69 per cent in 2011 to 58pc by next year.

But even as it slashes coal use within its borders, its financial institutions have committed or offered funding of $35.9bn for 102 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired power now being developed outside the country, the report said.

While overseas financial institutions like the World Bank aim to restrict new coal investments, Chinese state-owned enterprises and policy banks are becoming 'lenders of last resort' for coal-fired power, it said.

State firms facing caps on coal production and targets to reduce...