British Hedge Fund Billionaire Launches Campaign to Starve Coal of Finance

British hedge fund billionaire Chris Hohn has launched a campaign to persuade central banks to starve hundreds of planned coal-fired power plants around the world of finance, aiming to block the projects before they can pose a threat to the climate. Hohn, a big donor to groups working on climate change, set out his concerns in letters to Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and the chairmen of Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered. “Coal is the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions globally and the risks of its continued use in the power sector are not being adequately addressed by regulators and the financial system,” Hohn said a statement on the website here of his Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. via Reuters