Two years after the UK has pledged to stop burning the fossil fuel (until 2025), France announced it will shut down all its coal-fired power plants by 2023, president Francois Hollande said, quoted by The Independent.

Speaking at an annual UN climate change conference, Mr Hollande vowed to beat by two years the UK’s commitment to stop using the fossil fuel to generate power by 2025.

Mr Hollande, a keynote speaker at the event in Marrakech, Morocco, also praised his US counterpart Barack Obama for his work on climate change, and then appeared to snub president-elect Donald Trump.

Mr Trump is reportedly seeking ways to withdraw from the Paris agreement, a global treaty to limit climate change.

“The role played by Barack Obama was crucial in achieving the Paris agreement,” Mr Hollande said.

“We need carbon neutrality by 2050,” the French President continued, promising that coal will no longer form part of France’s energy mix in six to seven years’ time.

France is already a world leader in low-carbon energy. The country has invested heavily in nuclear power over the past few decades and now derives more than 75 per cent of its electricity from nuclear fission. It produces so much nuclear energy, in fact, that it exports much of it to nearby nations, making around £2.5 billion each year.

Canada has also announced a near-total phaseout of coal pollution by 2030. It’s only “near-total” because some of the more isolated interior territories, such as Alberta and Saskatchewan, rely heavily on burning coal for electricity.