Developing countries will likely need external financial assistance to wean themselves off coal, which has long been considered a cheap source of energy for factories and homes. Indonesia, which signed the pledge, had previously said it could phase out its coal-fired power plants by 2040, but only if it received financial assistance. The country is the eighth largest emitter in the world and derives about two-thirds of its electricity from coal. The IEA said all new fossil fuel developments must be halted from this year if the world is to stay within the 1.5 degree limit. IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol has also frequently called on the world to abandon coal, which produces more carbon than other sources of electricity, if the climate crisis is to be addressed. Kwasi Kwarteng, UK Minister for Economic Affairs, said: ”Today marks an important milestone in our global efforts to tackle climate change as nations from all over the world gather in Glasgow to declare that coal will play no role in our future electricity generation. Today`s ambitious commitments by our international partners show that the end of coal is in sight. Anna Moskwa, Poland`s climate and environment minister, pointed to the vagueness of the promise, saying on Twitter on Thursday that the deal would allow Poland to move away from coal by 2049. Poland currently gets 70% of its electricity from coal and has often resisted European proposals to move away from fossil fuels more quickly.
Countries like Britain and the United States announced an $8.5 billion partnership with South Africa at Tuesday`s COP26 conference to help the country phase out coal faster. Major coal-consuming countries, including Canada, Poland, South Korea, Ukraine, Indonesia and Vietnam, will phase out the use of coal to generate electricity, with large economies doing so in the 2030s and small economies in the 2040s. The signatories of the COP26 agreement agreed to phase out coal-fired electricity generation in rich countries in the 2030s and in the poorest countries in the 2040s. A majority also pledged to avoid investing in new coal-fired power plants at home and abroad. ”This commitment to coal has been a positive point in this package. It hurts a lot to see this dark light spot. We accept this change with the utmost reluctance,” said envoy Tina Stege. There has been such a wave of announcements about the world`s most polluting fossil fuel that it`s hard to see the light for all the (coal) dust. Some experts said the deal was a step forward. He came up with an announcement from the Powering Past Coal Alliance, an international campaign that said it had secured 28 new members, including Ukraine, to commit to phasing out coal. But some of the world`s largest coal-dependent countries, including China and the United States, have not joined. Some environmental groups have warned that the deal is vague on important details, such as the exact time when .
B countries will stop using fuel. The statement simply states that major economies are committed to phasing out coal-fired electricity ”in the 2030s (or as soon as possible thereafter),” while the rest of the world would phase out coal by the 2040s. A Polish government spokesman said the country`s commitment would lead to a halt to coal consumption in the 2040s. Poland had previously agreed to stop coal mining by 2049. Dozens of organizations have also signed the pledge, with several major banks agreeing to stop financing the coal industry. The United States did not agree to stop the development of domestic coal, but promised to end foreign financing of oil, gas and coal. This agreement is expected to contribute significantly to diverting public funds from fossil fuels through multilateral development promoters such as the World Bank. The 25 countries and institutions of this pact, including Italy, Canada and Denmark, have committed to prioritizing support for low- and zero-carbon energy such as wind, solar and geothermal energy. Although South Africa, Indonesia and the Philippines have not signed a coal phase-out, they have agreed on agreements that will lead to the rapid withdrawal of many of their existing coal-fired power plant projects. Such projects burn fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas without using technology to capture CO2 emissions. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg also expressed disappointment with the results of this year`s summit, dismissing the agreements as ”blah, blah, blah”. The White House National Security Council said in a statement Late Thursday that the coal commitment ”includes approval details that will be legally and technically reviewed by the federal government,” adding that the administration`s considerations for membership ”are based solely on this line of reasoning.” Republicans in the U.S.
have criticized the Biden administration`s promise to end oil, gas and coal funding — noting that China, Japan and South Korea, some of the world`s biggest supporters of foreign oil and gas projects, were not included in the deals. .
