Full Title: The State of Global Coal Power: Proposed New Capacity and Power Sector Decarbonization a Summary for Policymakers
Author(s): School of Public Policy, Center for Global Sustainability
Publisher(s): University of Maryland
Publication Date: April 1, 2018
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The world is running out of time to dramatically reduce emissions to stabilize climate, and one of the biggest contributors, and potential reduction opportunities, is the massive amount of existing and planned coal-fired electric power capacity. The Paris Agreement, signed by 195 Parties with broad engagement from businesses, subnational actors, and citizen groups, crystallized the world’s commitment to stabilizing and reducing emissions while limiting global temperature increase to well below
2°C above pre-industrial levels.
Achieving these goals will not be possible without a rapid phase-out of existing coal-fired electricity and a dramatic reduction in the construction of new coal power. Moreover, as part of the Paris Agreement, countries advanced national targets, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), which identify their roadmaps towards lowering emissions. However, at the same time, many of these countries are still actively planning, authorizing, and constructing new coal-fired power plants, which if actually built would prevent many from reaching their national goals and would make
reaching global climate goals nearly impossible.
This report examines the current trend of global coal power development and how those trajectories will affect these national and global goals.