Formation | 16 November 2017 [1] |
---|---|
Type | International environmental organization |
Region served | Worldwide |
Website | poweringpastcoal |
The Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA) is a group of 185 countries, cities, regions and organisations aiming to accelerate the coal phase-out of coal-fired power stations, except the very few which have carbon capture and storage. [2] [3] [4] It has been described as a "non-proliferation treaty" for fossil fuels. [5] The project was undertaken with financial support from the Government of Canada, through their environmental department known as Environment and Climate Change Canada. [6]
The Alliance was launched by Canada and the UK at the COP23 climate summit in November 2017. Announcing the launch, Climate Action Network-Canada Executive Director Catherine Abreu said: "Canada and the UK are right to kick-start the Alliance, as science tells us that OECD countries need to phase out coal by 2030 at the latest”. [1] [7]
By the end of the summit, membership had grown to include over 20 countries, regions and organizations. [8] Within a month membership had grown to over 50. [9] Its purpose is to establish a new international norm, or “standard of appropriate behaviour”, that coal should not be burned for power. [2]
In April 2018 a research partnership was announced with Bloomberg Philanthropies. [10]
In October 2018 the South Korean province of South Chungcheong became the first jurisdiction in Asia and the largest user of coal power to join the Alliance. [11] [12] In December 2018 Sydney, Melbourne, Scotland, Scottish Power, Senegal and Israel also joined [13] and in September 2019 seven new members joined including Germany and Slovakia. [5] [14]
In June 2020 6 global finance organisations joined including Desjardins Group, the first major North American financial institution to join. [15]
During 2021 at least 38 new members joined including Hungary, Uruguay, [16] Chile, Estonia, Singapore, Slovenia and Ukraine. [17]
Alliance members agree that: [9]
Reacting to the launch, Tracy Carty of Oxfam said the Alliance "represents real and tangible progress in the fight against climate change." [19]
Business change organisation The B Team welcomed the Alliance, and argued that exiting coal must happen as a just transition that protects vulnerable workers and communities such as coal mining communities. [20]
Members of the Powering Past Coal Alliance as of December 2023 were: [21]
Vattenfall is a Swedish multinational power company owned by the Swedish state. Beyond Sweden, the company generates power in Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
South Chungcheong Province, also known as Chungnam, is a province of South Korea in the Hoseo region in the southwest of the Korean Peninsula. South Chungcheong borders the provinces of Gyeonggi to the north, North Chungcheong, Sejong Special Self-governing City, and Daejeon Metropolitan City to the east, and North Jeolla to the south.
National Grid plc is a British multinational electricity and gas utility company headquartered in London, England. Its principal activities are in the United Kingdom, where it owns and operates electricity and natural gas transmission networks, and in the Northeastern United States, where as well as operating transmission networks, the company produces and supplies electricity and gas, providing both to customers in New York and Massachusetts.
Many countries and territories have installed significant solar power capacity into their electrical grids to supplement or provide an alternative to conventional energy sources. Solar power plants use one of two technologies:
Coal is mined in every state of Australia. The largest black coal resources occur in Queensland and New South Wales. About 70% of coal mined in Australia is exported, mostly to eastern Asia, and of the balance most is used in electricity generation. In 2019-20 Australia exported 390 Mt of coal and was the world's largest exporter of metallurgical coal and second largest exporter of thermal coal. While only employing 50,000 mining jobs nationally coal provides a rich revenue stream for governments.
For solar power, South Asia has the ideal combination of both high solar insolation and a high density of potential customers.
A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide there are about 2,500 coal-fired power stations, on average capable of generating a gigawatt each. They generate about a third of the world's electricity, but cause many illnesses and the most early deaths per unit of energy produced, mainly from air pollution. World installed capacity doubled from 2000 to 2023 and increased 2% in 2023.
Fossil fuel phase-out is the gradual reduction of the use and production of fossil fuels to zero, to reduce deaths and illness from air pollution, limit climate change, and strengthen energy independence. It is part of the ongoing renewable energy transition, but is being hindered by fossil fuel subsidies.
Coal reserves in Canada rank 13th largest in the world at approximately 10 billion tons, 0.6% of the world total. This represents more energy than all of the oil and gas in the country combined. The coal industry generates CDN$5 billion annually. Most of Canada's coal mining occurs in the West of the country. British Columbia operates 9 coal mines, Alberta nine, Saskatchewan three and New Brunswick one. Nova Scotia operates several small-scale mines, Westray having closed following the 1992 disaster there.
China is the world's largest electricity producer, having overtaken the United States in 2011 after rapid growth since the early 1990s. In 2021, China produced 8.5 petawatt-hour (PWh) of electricity, approximately 30% of the world's electricity production.
India is the world's 3rd largest consumer of electricity and the world's 3rd largest renewable energy producer with 40% of energy capacity installed in the year 2022 coming from renewable sources. Ernst & Young's (EY) 2021 Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI) ranked India 3rd behind USA and China. In FY2023-24, India is planning to issue 50 GW tenders for wind, solar and hybrid projects. India has committed for a goal of 500 GW renewable energy capacity by 2030.
Coal phase-out is an environmental policy intended to stop burning coal in coal-fired power plants and elsewhere, and is part of fossil fuel phase-out. Coal is the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel, therefore phasing it out is critical to limiting climate change as laid out in the Paris Agreement. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that coal is responsible for over 30% of the global average temperature increase above pre-industrial levels. Some countries in the Powering Past Coal Alliance have already stopped.
The National Grid covers most of mainland Great Britain and several of the surrounding islands, and there are interconnectors to Northern Ireland and to other European countries. Power is supplied to consumers at 230 volts AC with a frequency of 50 Hz. In 2023 about a third of electricity used in Britain was generated from fossil gas and two-thirds was low-carbon power. Wind generates the most low-carbon power, followed by nuclear some of which is imported from France. The government is aiming for greenhouse gas emissions from electricity in Britain to be net zero by 2035.
The Electricity Generation Company is the largest electric power company in Turkey. Owned by the government, it produces and trades electricity throughout the country.
An energy transition is a major structural change to energy supply and consumption in an energy system. Currently, a transition to sustainable energy is underway to limit climate change. Most of the sustainable energy is renewable energy. Therefore, another term for energy transition is renewable energy transition. The current transition aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy quickly and sustainably, mostly by phasing-down fossil fuels and changing as many processes as possible to operate on low carbon electricity. A previous energy transition perhaps took place during the Industrial Revolution from 1760 onwards, from wood and other biomass to coal, followed by oil and later natural gas.
The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an alliance of more than 120 signatory countries, most being sunshine countries, which lie either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The primary objective of the alliance is to work for the efficient consumption of solar energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. This initiative was first proposed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a speech in November 2015 at Wembley Stadium in which he referred to sunshine countries as Suryaputra. The alliance is a treaty-based inter-governmental organization. Countries that do not fall within the Tropics can join the alliance and enjoy all benefits as other members, with the exception of voting rights.
On June 1, 2017, US President Donald Trump announced that the United States would cease all participation in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation, contending that the agreement would "undermine" the U.S. economy, and put the U.S. "at a permanent disadvantage".
The 2017 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP23) was an international meeting of political leaders, non-state actors and activists to discuss environmental issues. It was held at UN Campus in Bonn, Germany, during 6–17 November 2017. The conference incorporated the 23rd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the thirteenth meeting of the parties for the Kyoto Protocol (CMP13), and the second session of the first meeting of the parties for the Paris Agreement.
ACEN Corporation, formerly AC Energy, is the energy firm under the Ayala Group. The company has over 4,000 MW of attributable capacity in the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and Australia, with a renewable share of 98% which is among the highest in the region.
The South Korean government plans to grow the renewable energy sector in the country. The country plans to use 20 percent renewable energy by 2030. The new plan will include a goal of 35 percent renewable energy by 2040. In the past, coal and nuclear power have been the pillars of South Korea's development. The country has long been one of the largest users of nuclear energy, but the liberal government, led by President Moon Jae In, decided to phase it out by 2057, fearing for its safety.