Beef Exclusive Insight. 5/7/2015, P6-6. 1p.
Editor's note: This story was originally published by The Guardian. It appears here every bit part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
The number of coal-fired power plants under evolution around the world barbarous concluding year, only far too much coal is still beingness burned and too many new coal-fired ability plants are planned for the earth to stay inside prophylactic temperature limits.
Coal use appeared to be in long-term decline earlier the COVID-19 pandemic, just lockdowns around the earth and economic upheaval drove an increment in new coal projects in 2020, specially in China.
Last year, the full coal power capacity in development fell sharply over again, by about 13 percent, from 525GW to 457GW, a tape depression for new plants nether development, co-ordinate to a report from Global Energy Monitor published on Tuesday. The number of countries planning new plants also fell, from 41 at the beginning of 2021 to 34 countries.
But these encouraging signs were outweighed by a slowdown in older coal-fired ability stations being taken out of service. About 25GW of chapters was taken out—roughly equal to the amount of new capacity commissioned in Mainland china—and the corporeality of electricity generated from coal rose by 9 percent in 2021 to a record high, more than rebounding from a 4 percent autumn in 2020 when COVID start struck.
The authors of the report ended that "coal's terminal gasp is not yet in sight", despite countries agreeing at the COP26 United nations climate pinnacle last November to a "stage downwards" of coal. Last year, the International Energy Agency warned that no new exploration of fossil fuels of whatsoever kind could have identify if the world was to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius to a higher place pre-industrial levels.
The standing apply of coal comes despite ever starker warnings from scientists in the latest assessment past the Intergovernmental Panel on Climatic change (IPCC), which ended that the world would far exceed the one.5 degrees Celsius limit without rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Flora Champenois of Global Free energy Monitor, 1 of the report's authors, said: "The coal establish pipeline is shrinking, but there is simply no carbon budget left to be building new coal plants. We need to cease at present. The latest IPCC report'south directive for a fighting chance at a livable climate is clear – stop building new coal plants and retire existing ones in the developed globe past 2030, and the rest of the world soon subsequently."
The war in Ukraine has besides taken a toll, pushing upwards gas prices and making coal cheaper by comparison, tempting companies and countries to fire more than of the dirtiest fuel. Just Lauri Myllyvirta, atomic number 82 analyst for the Centre for Enquiry on Energy and Clean Air, and some other co-author of the written report, said there could also exist an upside in that many countries—especially in Europe—were looking to reform their energy systems to advance make clean energy and emphasise energy efficiency.
"It's really important to note how much motility there has been towards make clean energy and efficiency in response to the invasion," he said.
Weakening demand in China was also dampening the prospects of a further coal revival, he added. The country'due south response to the current resurgence of COVID-19, and to the uncertain global economy, would be crucial. "The question is whether China does go for the high-quality economical growth that the leadership has been talking about."
China has deputed more new coal-fired power than the rest of the globe combined since the COVID-19 pandemic started, but the Chinese authorities's plans for increasing clean electricity production by 2025 should mean that less coal is used, even if new coal-fired ability plants are congenital there. But the building of such plants must be controlled much more strictly, co-ordinate to the report, or growing over-capacity could hurt the land'southward transition.
Globally, there are nonetheless more than 2,400 coal-fired power plants operating in 79 countries, making a total of nearly 2,100 GW of capacity. Only 170 plants are not covered by an eventual phase-out date or carbon-neutrality target, but likewise few are scheduled to retire in time to stay within i.5 degrees Celsius.
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Source: https://thebulletin.org/2022/05/coals-last-gasp-could-keep-world-from-achieving-climate-goals/