If the announcement is important, coal being a major contributor to global warming, large global consumers like the United States, China or India are missing.
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The British Government, host of the e conference on the climate (COP26), in Glasgow, had stated four priorities upstream of this crucial meeting: “Cars, Cash, Coal, Trees” (“cars, finances, coal, trees”). After announcements about reforestation, it is the box “coal” that London was able to check, Thursday, November 4th.
Some 40 countries have committed to abandon this ore to produce their electricity by 2030 for the main economic powers, and by 2040 for the poorest countries. Among them, about twenty coal consuming countries have agreed to accelerate the end of their dependence, including Canada, Ukraine, Chile, Vietnam, but also Poland – yet the poor European student in the field -, Who did not program his phasing out (his “progressive output”) only on the horizon 2049.
The announcement is important, coal being considered the main contributor to climate change. It will help “keep alive” the objective of limiting climate warming to 1.5 ° C, the major objective of COP26. The signatory countries undertake to finish with any new investment at the national and international levels in new coal plants, and to accelerate the deployment of their renewable energies. At the end of October, in Rome, the G20 states had already said they want to stop public funding to coal plants outside their borders by the end 2021.
“The world needs a step of giant “
For the British Minister of Energy, Kwasi Kwarteng, “the ambitious commitments made by our international partners show that the end of coal is in sight”. This end is all the more easy to defend for the 10 Downing Street that the United Kingdom has drastically reduced its carbon dependence. The latter only included 1.8% of its energy mix in 2020, compared with 40% in 2010. At 1 ER October 2024, no electricity will be generated by this resource, promised the Government of Boris Johnson. For Leo Roberts, the E3G reflection group, “the magnitude of these ads proves how much the abandonment of coal accelerates”.
Main weakness of the agreement, however: still lack the world’s “heavyweight” coal, consumers and producers – the United States, China, India or Australia. China, the world’s leading consumer, was committed to no longer investing in new plants abroad, but did not promise anything on their own territory. Australia, which produces even more than 50% of its electricity thanks to coal, continues to open new mines. India still generates 70% of its electricity with coal, and did not advance either on an exit agenda, even if its Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, made the commitment very encouraging that his country would generate 50% of its electricity with renewable energies in 2030.
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