China’s commitment to ending support for new coal overseas, and Turkey’s announcement at the United Nations General Assembly yesterday that it intends to ratify the UN Paris climate agreement are a critical blow for coal power in Europe.
Germany’s inadequate 2038 coal exit plan has left its regions and companies taking action into their own hands, with the city of Hannover today becoming the latest to announce a faster-than-planned coal exit.
The local communities of Milas and Yatağan in Muğla province of Turkey, have been living under the destructive impacts of Yeniköy, Kemerköy and Yatağan coal-fired power plants and coal mines for four decades. Now the last natural area, Akbelen Forest, with its trees, bushes, birds, thyme and mushrooms, is under the threat of an expanding open-pit lignite mine. We want to stand with the people of İkizköy, who have endured the destructive impacts of the Yeniköy, Kemerköy, and Yatağan coal-fired power plants and mines for four decades, and are fighting for what remains of their forests, olive groves and farming lands.
Japan Beyond Coal & Kiko Network are collecting signatures to request that JERA stop the construction of the coal-fired power plant in Yokosuka. Please join us in signing this petition to protect the future of Yokosuka, and the Earth.
Spain and North Macedonia joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA) at the London Climate Action Week today, bringing the number of European countries that have committed to phase out coal by 2030, or are already coal free, to sixteen. North Macedonia will close its two coal plants by 2027, while Spain has opted for an unambitious 2030 end date for coal, despite closing all of its coal mines and more than half of its installed coal capacity since 2019.
Enel will stop burning coal at its Brindisi Sud coal power plant in 2025, in line with Italy's 2025 coal exit plan. Brindisi Sud is one of Europe's 30 most polluting coal plants in terms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
It has been five years since the UN Paris Climate Agreement, and in that short time, half of Europe’s coal plants have closed, or have announced pre-2030 closure plans. 2030 is now the key date for coal in Europe and the OECD, as it’s the latest possible moment these countries can close their coal plants and still meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
The hastening phase-out of coal in the European power sector requires new solutions for local district heating grids. This paper locates and quantifies the issue in Europe, what can be done to transition to sustainable substitutes and what the challenges are on the way towards decarbonisation.
We're running out of time to address climate change, and while the EU is doing more and more to act on it and clean up industry, one of its key laws to cut industrial pollution does not cover carbon emissions! This has to change, and we have an opportunity to do it right now!
