Page 8 - AfrElec Week 09 2021
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AfrElec                                           POLICY                                              AfrElec


       Guterres calls for




       comprehensive coal phase-out




        P                UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres this  finally organise a fair transition, going coal plant
                         week called for a comprehensive coal phase-  by coal plant if necessary.
                         out if the world is to meet its 1.5 degree goal for   The UN chief’s remarks are particularly
                         global warming.                      urgent, as the UN Climate Change’s Initial NDC
                           He called for three Climate Action steps that  Synthesis Report, which was published at the end
                         would be needed to provide a just transition for  of February, showed that governments were not
                         the global economy and to help countries meet  on track to meet the Paris Agreement goals.
                         their Paris Agreement goals for reducing green-  The report warned that more ambitious
                         house gas (GHG) emissions.           national climate action plans were needed in
                           He said that the world needed to end its  2021 if countries are to achieve the Paris Agree-
                         “deadly addiction to coal” by cancelling all global  ment goals.
                         coal projects in the pipeline.         The report warned that current national cli-
                           In a message to the Powering Past Coal  mate action plans, NDCs, would only reduce
                         Alliance Summit, he said that national govern-  emissions by 1% by 2030 compared to 2010 lev-
                         ments, private companies and local authorities  els, compared to the 45% identified by the Inter-
                         all needed to take the three steps as they formu-  governmental Panel on Climate Change.
                         lating future regulatory regimes and investment   Moving away from coal should become
                         strategies.                          more and more cost-effective. The International
                           “Phasing out coal from the electricity sector is  Energy Agency (IEA) has found that the cost
                         the single most important step to get in line with  of building new solar utility-scale projects is
                         [the] 1.5-degree goal,” he said.     cheaper than simply running existing coal plants
                           The first step is to cancel all global coal pro-  in places such as China and India, with renewa-
                         jects in the pipeline and end the deadly addiction  ble energy getting cheaper by the day.
                         to coal. He set a deadline of 2030 for OECD and   “Coal’s economic viability is declining. This
                         2040 for non-OECD countries.         has been accelerated by the pandemic. In virtu-
                           The second is to end international financing  ally all markets, it is now cheaper to build new
                         of coal plants and to shift investment to renewa-  renewable energy capacity than new coal plants,”
                         ble energy projects.                 Guterres said in his message.™
                           The third is to jump-start the global effort to











































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