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Prospects for powering past coal

Jewell, Jessica ; Vinichenko, Vadim ; Nacke, Lola and Cherp, Aleh LU (2019) In Nature Climate Change 9(8). p.592-597
Abstract
To keep global warming within 1.5 °C of pre-industrial levels, there needs to be a substantial decline in the use of coal power by 20301,2 and in most scenarios, complete cessation by 2050. The members of the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA), launched in 2017 at the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties, are committed to “phasing out existing unabated coal power generation and a moratorium on new coal power gen- eration without operational carbon capture and storage”. The alliance has been hailed as a ‘political watershed’ and a new ‘anti-fossil fuel norm’. Here we estimate that the premature retirement of power plants pledged by PPCA members would cut emissions by 1.6 GtCO2, which is 150 times less than globally committed emissions from... (More)
To keep global warming within 1.5 °C of pre-industrial levels, there needs to be a substantial decline in the use of coal power by 20301,2 and in most scenarios, complete cessation by 2050. The members of the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA), launched in 2017 at the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties, are committed to “phasing out existing unabated coal power generation and a moratorium on new coal power gen- eration without operational carbon capture and storage”. The alliance has been hailed as a ‘political watershed’ and a new ‘anti-fossil fuel norm’. Here we estimate that the premature retirement of power plants pledged by PPCA members would cut emissions by 1.6 GtCO2, which is 150 times less than globally committed emissions from existing coal power plants. We also investigated the prospect of major coal consumers join- ing the PPCA by systematically comparing members to non- members. PPCA members extract and use less coal and have older power plants, but this alone does not fully explain their pledges to phase out coal power. The members of the alliance are also wealthier and have more transparent and indepen- dent governments. Thus, what sets them aside from major coal consumers, such as China and India, are both lower costs of coal phase-out and a higher capacity to bear these costs. (Less)
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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
coal, energy, climate
in
Nature Climate Change
volume
9
issue
8
pages
592 - 597
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • scopus:85068568816
ISSN
1758-6798
DOI
10.1038/s41558-019-0509-6
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
40592ffd-3285-493f-9585-f71581aa5b49
date added to LUP
2019-07-06 09:03:11
date last changed
2024-02-02 14:59:03
@article{40592ffd-3285-493f-9585-f71581aa5b49,
  abstract     = {{To keep global warming within 1.5 °C of pre-industrial levels, there needs to be a substantial decline in the use of coal power by 20301,2 and in most scenarios, complete cessation by 2050. The members of the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA), launched in 2017 at the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties, are committed to “phasing out existing unabated coal power generation and a moratorium on new coal power gen- eration without operational carbon capture and storage”. The alliance has been hailed as a ‘political watershed’ and a new ‘anti-fossil fuel norm’. Here we estimate that the premature retirement of power plants pledged by PPCA members would cut emissions by 1.6 GtCO2, which is 150 times less than globally committed emissions from existing coal power plants. We also investigated the prospect of major coal consumers join- ing the PPCA by systematically comparing members to non- members. PPCA members extract and use less coal and have older power plants, but this alone does not fully explain their pledges to phase out coal power. The members of the alliance are also wealthier and have more transparent and indepen- dent governments. Thus, what sets them aside from major coal consumers, such as China and India, are both lower costs of coal phase-out and a higher capacity to bear these costs.}},
  author       = {{Jewell, Jessica and Vinichenko, Vadim and Nacke, Lola and Cherp, Aleh}},
  issn         = {{1758-6798}},
  keywords     = {{coal; energy; climate}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{07}},
  number       = {{8}},
  pages        = {{592--597}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Nature Climate Change}},
  title        = {{Prospects for powering past coal}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0509-6}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41558-019-0509-6}},
  volume       = {{9}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}