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Global Energy Monitor said in June that the global coal industry was in fact chasing expansion, with 2.277bn tonnes per year (tpy) of new coal mining capacity currently under development, the equivalent of 30% of 2019 global output of 8.135bn tonnes.
The report said that China, Australia, India and Russia were the key drivers of coal expansion, accounting for 77% (1,750mn tpy) of development.
Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa has a pipeline of 15 GW (5% of the global total), down 47% since 2015. Over this period seven countries have fully scrapped their pipeline. This leaves 13 countries still considering coal, but with only South Africa and Zimbabwe currently constructing new plants.
Crucially, Chinese financial institutions are involved in 13 projects in eight countries, totalling 11.4 GW of planned capacity (76% of the total pipeline in the region).
“This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet. There must be no new coal plants built after 2021.”
However, cancelling such projects would help African countries to avoid locking themselves into an expensive and polluting energy source, and the risk of costly asset stranding.
For example, Kenya had abandoned the Chinese-backed 1,050-MW Lamu coal project after environmental campaigners fought the matter in court.
The Lamu project had originally been promoted as an alternative to expensive diesel-fired power. However, with falling costs for new wind and solar plants, coal can no longer undercut renewables in Africa and elsewhere.
Multilateral development banks (MDBs) such as the African Development Bank (AfDB) have also walked away from coal in the developing world.
COP is coming
Looking ahead, the E3G report stressed that coal expansion is now concentrated in just a handful of countries, meaning that action by just six of them could remove 82% of the remaining global pipeline of pre-construction projects.
China, because of its sheer size and because of its role as the last major source of coal financing, has a pivotal role to play in reducing’s coal’s importance in the global power industry.
If China followed its East Asian neighbours Japan and South Korea in ending overseas coal finance, it would facilitate the cancellation of over 40 GW of pipeline projects across 20 countries.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in August that there must be now new coal plants if the world is to meet its climate targets.
“This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet. There must be no new coal plants built after 2021. OECD countries must phase out existing coal by 2030, with all others following suit by 2040. Countries should also end all new fossil fuel exploration and production, and shift fossil-fuel subsidies into renewable energy,” he said.
With Africa, Europe and much of Asia now moving away from coal, only China and parts of developing Asia are left promoting the fuel, while the science and political support is increasingly becoming against coal.
“The world’s leading scientific bodies are clear: coal power needs to be essentially phased out in the next two decades to prevent dangerous climate change,” said the report's co-author Christine Shearer, programme director at Global Energy Monitor.
Green push comes to steel
Stephen Bierman of NEO
The world got its first pilot delivery of carbon-free steel last month, setting a pair of green goalposts for the industry’s future. Progress for the moment and future, all the same, will require changes in production processes, feed stock and fuels.
The first delivery of totally carbon-free steel was still very much in pilot mode in the global context. Costs remain steep, which is the quite legitimate reason all this hasn’t been done
previously. Yet Swedish Steel maker SSAB, Swedish Vattenfall and state-owned Swedish miner LKAB announced the delivery of the hydrogen-reduced sponge iron to the Volvo Group, according to their statement. The clean-burning hydrogen was produced using electricity from renewable energy.
The group seeks to deliver fossil-free steel to the market on an industrial scale as early as 2026.
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