A 190-strong coalition of countries and organisations, including Poland, Vietnam, Egypt, Chile and Morocco, have announced ‘clear commitments’ to phase out coal power at COP26 today.
Today’s commitments, brought together through UK-led efforts including the new ‘Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement’, encompass developed and developing countries, major coal users and climate vulnerable countries.
Business & Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng commented: “Today marks a milestone moment in our global efforts to tackle climate change as nations from all corners of the world unite in Glasgow to declare that coal has no part to play in our future power generation.
“Spearheaded by the UK’s COP26 Presidency, today’s ambitious commitments made by our international partners demonstrate that the end of coal is in sight.
“The world is moving in the right direction, standing ready to seal coal’s fate and embrace the environmental and economic benefits of building a future that is powered by clean energy.”
This statement, launched today, commits nations across the world to:
- end all investment in new coal power generation domestically and internationally
- rapidly scale up deployment of clean power generation
- phase out coal power in economies in the 2030s for major economies and 2040s for the rest of the world
- make a just transition away from coal power in a way that benefits workers and communities
This is on top of China, Japan and Korea, the three largest public financiers of coal, committing to end overseas finance for coal generation by the end of 2021, announced in the last year during the UK’s incoming COP26 Presidency.
Agreements at the G7, G20 and OECD to end public international coal finance send a strong signal that the world economy is shifting to renewables.
According to the UK government, this could end over 40GW of coal across 20 countries, equivalent to over half of the UK’s electricity generating capacity.
More information about this announcement is available on the UK Government website.
