1 of 2 John Kerry, special adviser on climate to the Joe Biden administration, with French President Emmanuel Macron during COP 28. — Photo: Reproduction/X John Kerry, special adviser on climate to the Joe Biden administration, with French President Emmanuel Macron during COP 28. Photo: Reproduction/X
The United States (USA) committed to this this Saturday (2). Stop using coalfired power plantsone of the fossil fuels responsible for exacerbating global warming.
The announcement was made by US Special Adviser on Climate John Kerry during the UN’s flagship annual meeting on climate change, COP 28, which runs until December 12 in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.
According to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, coal is responsible for about 40% of fossil fuel emissions, and the United States and China are responsible for nearly 60% of carbon dioxide emissions from coal burning.
Kerry said the U.S. would join an alliance of more than 50 countries committed to an energy transition away from coal, halting construction of new power plants and phasing out existing ones.
According to the Associated Press (AP), no date was given for the closure of existing power plants, but other Biden administration regulations and international commitments set 2035 as the deadline for ending coal use.
The announcement came a day after French President Emmanuel Macron called on the G7 countries, the group of nations with the world’s largest economies, to commit to phasing out coal before 2030 to “send a signal.”
“We will work with partners around the world to move away from shrinkable coal, an absolutely necessary step to keep the 1.5°C target within reach,” Kerry said.
Limiting global warming to 1.5°C is considered essential to prevent even more dramatic consequences of climate change. Every few tenths of an increase in Earth’s average temperature means greater frequency and intensity of extreme events (such as droughts, fires, hurricanes and storms), in addition to melting polar ice caps, sea level rise and ecosystem imbalance.
2 of 2 The image shows a coalfired thermal power plant in the Montana region of the United States. — Photo: AP The image shows a coalfired thermal power plant in the Montana region of the United States. — Photo: AP
In his announcement, Kerry used a phrase that has caused controversy in climate discussions. He said the U.S. would stop building new “unabated” coalfired power plants — which, roughly speaking, means coalfired power plants whose greenhouse gas emissions “cannot be reduced.” In other words, those that are not covered by other measures to capture greenhouse gases already present in the atmosphere, such as: B. reforestation, forest protection and others can be compensated.
According to the AP, coalfired power plants in the United States have already been closed for economic reasons and there are no plans to build new power plants.
“We are already on track to phase out coal by the end of the decade,” said climate analyst Alden Meyer from the agency’s European research center E3G. This is because natural gas and renewable energy sources like solar and wind are cheaper.
Less than 20% of U.S. electricity came from coal as of October, according to the country’s Department of Energy. According to the AP, the total coal burned by Americans last year was less than half of what was used in 2008.
Nevertheless, coal is an extremely climatedamaging fossil fuel that produces more carbon dioxide per unit of energy produced than natural gas and gasoline.
Increasing pressure on other countries
The American government is putting pressure on other countries to phase out coal, particularly China and India, which are building new power plants that run on the fuel.
In September, a study by Ember, a research institute that promotes the use of renewable energy, showed that emissions from coal burning continued to rise in the world’s largest economies, despite commitments made by those countries.
According to the survey, between 2015 and 2022 Per capita emissions associated with coal in the G20 (Group of 20 largest economies) rose 9% mainly driven by China, Japan, Turkey, Russia, India and Indonesia.
In this sense, the American announcement puts pressure on other countries to enforce their commitments. “This puts direct pressure on China, which has more than half of the world’s coal and almost 75% of all new coalfired power projects around the world,” E3G’s Leo Roberts told Britain’s The Guardian newspaper.
“I think it’s a deliberate tactic by the countries that have committed,” he said of the American decision.