At COP 28, the United States commits to stopping the use of coal in power plants | environment

Today, Saturday (2), the United States (USA) committed to Stop using coal-fired power plantsIt is one of the types of fossil fuels responsible for worsening global warming.

The announcement was made by US Special Adviser on Climate Change, John Kerry, during the main annual UN meeting on climate change, COP 28, which is being held until December 12 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Coal accounts for approx 40% of fossil fuel emissions And the The United States and China account for approximately 60% of carbon dioxide emissions (a global greenhouse gas) from burning coal.According to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.

Kerry said that the United States will join a coalition of more than 50 countries committed to the energy transition away from coal, halting the construction of new plants and gradually closing existing ones.

According to what was reported by the Associated Press (AP). No date has been set for closing the current factoriesBut other Biden administration regulations and international commitments have set 2035 as the deadline to end coal use.

The announcement came one day after French President Emmanuel Macron called on the G7 countries, the group of countries with the world’s largest economies, to commit to ending coal before 2030 “to set an example.”

“We will work with partners around the world to transition away from retractable coal, a much-needed step to keep the 1.5°C target within reach,” Kerry said.

Limiting global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius is essential to avoid the most dramatic consequences of climate change. Every few tenths of an increase in Earth’s average temperature means an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme events (such as drought, fires, hurricanes, and storms), in addition to the melting of polar ice caps, rising sea levels, and disruption of ecosystems.

In his announcement, Kerry used an expression that caused controversy in climate discussions. He said the United States would stop building new coal-fired plants “unrelentingly” — which roughly translates to coal plants whose greenhouse gas emissions “cannot be reduced.” In other words, those that cannot be offset by other measures to trap greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere, such as reforestation, forest conservation, among others.

Coal-fired plants in the United States have already been closed for economic reasons, and there are no plans to build new ones, according to information from the Associated Press.

“We are already on track to stop using coal by the end of the decade anyway,” climate analyst Alden Meyer of the European think tank E3G told the agency. This is because natural gas and renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, are cheaper.

Until October, Less than 20% of electricity in the United States is generated by coalAccording to the country’s Ministry of Energy. According to the Associated Press, the total coal Americans burned last year was less than half of what they consumed in 2008.

However, Coal is an extremely harmful fossil fuel for the climate, producing more carbon dioxide per unit of energy generated than natural gas and gasoline..

Increasing pressure on other countries

The US government is putting pressure on other countries to abandon coal, especially China and India, which are building new stations that run on the fuel.

In September, a study conducted by the Ember Research Foundation, which promotes the use of renewable energy, showed this Coal-burning emissions from the world’s largest economies continue to rise despite commitments made by these countries.

According to the survey, between 2015 and 2022, Per capita emissions associated with coal in G20 (Group of the 20 largest economies) by 9% – Mainly driven by China, Japan, Turkey, Russia, India and Indonesia.

In this sense, the American declaration imposes pressure on other countries to implement their obligations. “This puts direct pressure on China, which owns more than half the world’s coal and nearly 75% of new coal plant projects around the world,” E3G’s Leo Roberts told the Guardian.

He said about the American decision: “I think it is a deliberate tactic by committed countries.”