The four countries account for 15% of global emissions related to coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. Reducing their emissions faster will support global efforts to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, a key objective of the United Nations’ ongoing COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

The Indonesian energy minister Arifin Tasrif said his country is determined to reduce its coal-fired power plants as part of the energy transition and replace them with renewable energies.

“Climate change is a global challenge that must be addressed by all parties by setting an example,” he said in a statement.

The CIF said the Accelerating Coal Transition (ACT) program was the first to target developing countries that lack sufficient resources to fund the move away from coal, which is seen as essential to keeping global temperatures rising up Limit to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2030.

South Africa announced Tuesday that it would be the first beneficiary.

Burning coal, the single largest source of global temperature rise, is facing competitive challenges from renewable energy sources, with the number of uncompetitive coal-fired power plants growing by more than two-thirds globally by 2025.

“Coal is a high-emission source of energy that hinders a climate-friendly future,” said Mafalda Duarte, CEO of CIF, which was founded in 2008 by the world’s largest economies to help poorer countries make their transition to low-carbon economies.

“Markets are starting to move in the right direction, but the transition is not coming quickly enough to respond to the urgency of the climate crisis.”

The new program has been endorsed by the Group of Seven Developed Economies and is backed by financial pledges from the United States, Britain, Germany, Canada and Denmark, the CIF said.

It will invest in projects ranging from strengthening countries’ domestic capacities to cope with energy transition to reusing or decommissioning coal plants, creating economic opportunities for coal-dependent communities.

The project will work with six multilateral development banks to provide the coal-changing countries with a comprehensive set of financing tools, including low-income loans and technical assistance.