Over 40 nations commit to phase out coal

A coalition comprising 190 countries and organisations on Wednesday agreed at COP26 to both phase out coal power and end support for new coal power plants.

Countries such as Indonesia, South Korea, Poland, Vietnam and Chile have made pledges to phase out coal power, while major banks have committed to cease financing coal. This is in addition to China, Japan, Korea and the G20 commitments to stop overseas finance for coal generation by the end of the year.

Those 190 countries and non-state actors have signed up to the so-called Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement and/or joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA), co-chaired by the UK. The parties endorsing the Statement have made commitments to move away from unabated coal power generation in the 2030s, or as soon as possible thereafter, for major economies and in the 2040s, or as soon as possible thereafter, globally. In addition, nations supporting this statement have agreed to speed up the deployment of clean power generation.

Among the companies supporting the statement are ACWA Power, the EDF Group, EDP, Engie, Iberdrola, National Grid, Ørsted, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, SSE and others. The full list can be found here: https://ukcop26.org/global-coal-to-clean-power-transition-statement/

As per the PPCA, the alliance has welcomed a total of 28 new members, including Chile, Singapore and Durban.

The host of the COP26 summit -- the UK -- itself has pledged to phase out coal power completely by 2024 and to achieve a decarbonised power system by 2035.

Earlier in the week, it was also announced that the UK is one of the nations that will mobilise an initial commitment of USD 8.5 billion (EUR 7.4bn) to help South Africa achieve its decarbonisation objectives, including an accelerated transition away from coal.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.867)

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