Removing coal from the power grid is the most important step towards reducing climate change

Speaking at the UK-sponsored Alliance to Eliminate Coal Global Summit, the UN Secretary-General explained that over the past year, in the midst of a pandemic, many public and private sector leaders have committed to achieving net zero emissions by mid-century.

This push in favor of the climate “offers a certain hope,” said António Guterres who, however, recalled that last Friday, the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change published a report whose conclusions “were not good”, because countries are far from meeting the goal of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, and ideally in the 1.5 degrees Celsius.

“We have a long way to go,” said the head of the UN, but stressed that we still have time to achieve it “if we take immediate measures to end the dirtiest, most polluting and, yes, increasingly expensive fossil fuels in our energy sectors.”

In this sense, he stressed that the progressive elimination of coal from the electricity sector “is the most important step that we must achieve in line with the objective of 1.5 degrees”.

He then explained that the progressive phase-out of coal means that its use in electricity generation must fall 80% below 2010 levels by 2030.

Renewable energy is cheaper

For those nostalgic for this fossil fuel he had a message: “Once, once, coal brought cheap electricity to entire regions and vital jobs for communities. Those days are gone. More than half of the renewable capacity added in 2019 achieved lower energy costs than new, cheaper coal plants.”

The benefits of eliminating dirty energy like this exceed environmental ones and extend to health, as fossil fuel-related air pollution causes 1 in 5 deaths globally each year.

And other benefits are from the purely economic point of view. In virtually every market, it is now cheaper to build new renewable energy capacity than new coal plants.

For example, the International Energy Agency has found that the cost of building new solar projects is cheaper than simply running existing coal plants in places like China and India.

For all these reasons, Guterres called on “all governments, private companies and local authorities” to take three steps:

• cancel all global coal projects in the pipeline and end the deadly addiction to coal

• end international financing of coal plants and shift investment to renewable energy projects

• launch a global effort to finally organize a just transition

To achieve the first step, Guterres urged all countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to commit to phasing out coal by 2030, and non-COAL countries to do so by 2040.

He also called on major coal emitters and users to announce their phase-out plans well before this year’s Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. His message was especially addressed to the members of the G7, the seven most powerful economies on the planet, whom he invited to take the initiative and commit to that step of canceling all their coal projects at the summit they will hold in June.

For the second step of shifting investment to renewable energy projects, the Secretary-General called on the leaders of major emitting economies to announce the end of their financial support for coal at the first opportunity this year.

He also had words for developing countries that are about to adopt the transition to renewable energy to provide universal access to energy for their citizens and asked them to commit to that policy.

Message to banks and investors

In addition, he addressed all multilateral and public banks, as well as investors in banks or pension funds, to shift their investments now towards the new renewable energy economy.

The third step, that of organizing a just transition, “coal plant by coal plant if necessary”, refers to the inevitable loss of jobs that these measures will generate, but remembering that the transition to renewable energy will lead to the net creation of millions of jobs by 2030.

All this must be done without losing sight of the fact that the impact at the regional and local level will be varied.

“We have a collective and urgent responsibility to address the serious challenges that come with the speed and scale of the transition. The coal needs of communities must be recognized and concrete solutions must be provided at a very local level. That requires commitment, from governments to energy companies, from the workforce, from unions to investors, both private and public,” Guterres said.

Decent work

To that end, he called on all countries to adopt the International Labour Organization Guidelines as a minimum standard to ensure progress on decent work for all.

“The United Nations will fully support this just transition and efforts to ensure that thriving renewable energy communities emerge from this transformation,” he said.

The head of the UN wanted to end his speech before the Global Summit of the Alliance to Eliminate Coal with a positive message showing his conviction that: “We can have renewable energies and blue skies. We can have decent, healthy, and reliable jobs. We can have reliable renewable energy systems that ensure that all people have access to energy. We can push beyond coal and have economies that thrive on innovative businesses aligned with what the world demands: sustainable development and prosperity for people and planet.”

Source: UN News