UK, Canada and Germany lead fresh push against coal power at COP28

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The UK, Canada, Germany and 12 other countries are stepping up a push to halt new coal-fired power stations and clamp down on polluting existing plants, after failure to make progress in the two years since a UN pact on coal was first signed.

The ministers of 15 nations are behind a letter seen by the Financial Times that urges the upcoming COP28 UN climate summit in Dubai to deliver an agreement that will end public and private finance for new coal power projects.

Almost 200 countries agreed for the first time at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 to phase down coal power without the emissions captured.

But coal power has barely declined since then, according to the International Energy Agency, mainly as energy demands grow in China, India and south-east Asia, while it has ebbed as a power source in the richer US and Europe.

The letter addressed to the COP28 presidency, led by the UAE’s Sultan al-Jaber, says coal power generation remains the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions and “needs to be phased out first and fastest”.

The signatory countries have mostly already benefited from coal power to varying degrees: the UK has scaled down the use of coal for electricity since the 1990s to a few per cent, and in Canada it is now less than 10 per cent, while Germany relies on coal for about a third of its generation.

While the UK recently approved its first new coal mine in 30 years, the production is focused on coking coal used in steel production.

Canadian environment minister Steven Guilbeault, co-chair of the Powering Past Coal Alliance of governments, businesses and other groups behind the letter, said: “The time for half-measures and gradual change has passed. The time to act is now.”

“We must significantly accelerate action on coal. It is now critical that we immediately stop approvals and construction of new coal power plants and radically accelerate the coal-to-clean transition,” they wrote.

The letter comes ahead of what is expected to a fierce debate at COP28 about the reliance of emerging economies on fossil fuels, including coal, oil and gas.

While it is not a signatory to the letter, a senior state department official said the US maintained there should be an immediate halt to the permitting of new, unabated coal developments.

US climate envoy John Kerry has been strident, telling the FT in a recent interview that he felt “increasing anger” about the scale of coal power expansion that would make it “impossible to achieve 1.5 degrees”, in a reference to the global temperature rise since pre-industrial times.

The G7 earlier this year committed “to accelerate the phaseout of unabated fossil fuels so as to achieve net zero in energy systems by 2050”, despite resistance from Japan.

But a focus on coal at COP28 is likely to provoke many developing countries, which are often more heavily reliant on coal for power and have less access to the finance needed to make their energy systems greener.  

India, which relies heavily on coal power, has been critical of the developed world’s emphasis on dumping coal rather than all fossil fuels.

The letter, also signed by Spain, Greece, Denmark, Chile, Colombia and Vanuatu, said no country should have to “compromise between sustainable development and the fight against climate change”.

They called for “collective momentum at COP28 to develop a strategy for coal power phase out that generates the necessary financial flows and ensures that the right guardrails are put in place to protect coal-dependent regions, workers and communities”.

The ministers also argued financial institutions should commit to end financing for new, unabated coal.

Of the world’s 60 largest banks, 47 have at least some exclusion policies on coal in place, according to the Banking on Climate Chaos report.

The COP28 leadership said it was aware of the “strong views” about the phaseout of fossil fuels and was “seeking to build consensus”. The UAE is pushing for carbon capture technology to reduce emissions, as well as a system of carbon credits issued to essentially pay for the retirement of existing coal plants.