Southeast Asia govts told to back plan to close coal plants

Southeast Asian governments must back the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) plans to expedite the closure of coal plants in the region with strong regulation to win funding for the programme, an energy consultancy said in a report on Friday.

The ADB is leading a group of financial firms that plan to create a public-private partnership model to buy out coal-fired power plants and wind them down within 15 years, far sooner than their usual life...