The World Bank said recently it would not support a planned 500-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Kosovo, the first major energy project in the Balkan country in more than two decades.
Kosovo's government had asked the Washington-based lender to provide it partial risk guarantees that would help unlock cheaper loans for the project.
Asked by a Kosavar civil society representative during the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings in Bali if the bank would still back the project, its President Jim Yong Kim said the lender has made "a very firm decision" not to go forward with it.
"Because we are required with our bylaws to go with the lowest cost option and renewables have now come below the cost of coal...so without question we are not going to do that," he said during the meeting, broadcast live on the World Bank's website.
It is unclear how the government will now proceed with the project which environmentalists say could lock Kosovo into a future powered by lignite - the dirtiest form of coal.
