On the fourth day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), host United Kingdom, which has already almost entirely phased out its coal power fleet, announced that forty-six countries had pledged to close their coal power plants, with richer countries committing to doing so in the 2030s and developing countries in the 2040s. This follows on the agreement last week by the Group of Twenty (G20) nations to stop financing overseas coal plants and the existing efforts of the Powering Past Coal Alliance, which has expanded to forty-eight countries with the addition of twelve new members mainly from Europe. Although the significance of Thursday’s announcement was limited by the non-participation of China, India, the United States, and other key coal-consuming and producing countries, several other key coal-burning countries did join.
Bending the Asia-Pacific coal curve is critical to taming climate change. COP26 is making progress (Robert F. Ichord, Jr., Atlantic Council)
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