Michael Bloomberg fires up expanded campaign to close a quarter of the world’s coal plants by 2025
UN Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions announces plans to extend ‘Beyond Coal’ campaign into key emerging economies
G20 leaders may have resisted calls this weekend for a firm target date for ending the use of coal power, but pressure on coal operators is still set to intensify with the launch today of a major new global campaign that is aiming to ensure a quarter of the world’s remaining coal power plants are closed by 2025.
Billionaire media mogul Michael Bloomberg, who also serves as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions, today told an audience at the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow that his Bloomberg Philanthropies foundation would launch a new effort to accelerate the closure of coal plants globally.
The campaign will support UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ long-standing calls for coal power to be phased out in OECD and the EU27 by 2030 and by 2040 everywhere else.
As such, the Bloomberg Philanthropies campaign has set a target to work to close a quarter of the world’s 2,445 remaining coal plants and all 519 proposed new coal plants by 2025, in a move that will dramatically expand its current efforts to support coal phase outs in seven countries and the EU. Specifically, the campaign will be extended to an additional 25 developing countrieswhere coal power is projected to rapidly grow.
“Coal is enemy number one in the battle over climate change, because it causes one-third of all carbon emissions,” Bloomberg said at this morning’s launch event. “Over the last decade, Bloomberg Philanthropies has helped shut down two-thirds of coal-fired power plants in the US and half in Europe – and that work continues. But around the world, too many coal plants are driving climate change and making people sick, so we are expanding our efforts to 25 more countries and setting an ambitious new goal: working to close a quarter of the world’s coal plants by 2025 and cancel all proposed coal plants by that year, too.
“Just as we have been succeeding in the US and Europe, with the help of strong partners on the ground, we are determined to succeed globally.”
Bloomberg Philanthropies said it would take a three-pronged approach to help accelerate coal phase out efforts, funding advocacy work in support of ‘no coal’ policies, supporting competitive clean energy projects, and providing financing and investment to fund pilot clean energy projects that encourage further private sector investment.
The approach builds on considerable success that the campaign has previously enjoyed in the US, where it Bloomberg pledged in 2011 to provide $50m in support of a campaign to retire one-third of the US coal fleet by 2020. That target was comfortably exceeded, as growing competition from clean energy sources saw the US retire half its coal fleet by 2017. Since Bloomberg Philanthropies’ initial commitment, the ‘Beyond Coal’ campaign has helped retire 65 per cent of US coal plants, leading to a 43 per cent drop in coal emissions.
The Beyond Coal campaign was subsequently expanded to the EU, Australia, South Korea, and Japan, and is now set to be extended further into many of those emerging economies that now dominate the global coal power plant pipeline.
Guterres today reiterated his warnings that phasing out coal power had to be a top priority for governments everywhere if global climate goals are to be met.
“If all planned coal power plants become operational, we will not only be clearly above 1.5 degrees – we will be well above 2 degrees” he said. “The Paris targets would go up in smoke. We need coalitions of solidarity – between countries that still depend heavily on coal, and countries that have the financial and technical resources to support transitions.”
The launch of the new campaign was also welcomed by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who co-founded that Powering Past Coal alliance with the UK. “Since 2015, Canada has been a committed partner in the global fight against climate change, and as we move to a net zero future, we will continue to do our part to cut pollution and build a cleaner future for everyone,” he said. “That includes phasing out coal-fired electricity in Canada and helping other parts of the world transition off of coal. Together, we will beat this crisis while creating a greener economy and new middle class jobs.”
This weekend’s G20 Summit did secure an agreement from leading economies to end the financing of coal power plants overseas. But hopes that G20 leaders would accept a firm target date for phasing out the use of coal power domestically were quashed, as a number of largely coal-reliant economies resisted proposals for a clear date to end unabated coal-fired power generation.
However, the COP26 Summit could yet see more countries commit to phasing out coal power, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stressing that he regards faster action on coal emissions as a top priority for the talks.
Johnson also today for the first time confirmed he opposed plans for a new coking coal mine in Cumbria, which is currently the subject of a planning battle. But the Prime Minister insisted the final decision on the controversial mine rested with planning authorities.
“I’m not in favour of more coal,” Johnson told the BBC. “But it is not a decision for me, it is a decision for the planning authorities.”
However, environmental campaigners were quick to point out that if he amended the National Planning Policy Framework he could effectively ban all new coal mines in the UK.
Supporters of the mine argue it would provide coking coal for the steel manufacturing industry, and as such could lead to lower emissions compared to imported coal.
But critics have countered that to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement steel production urgently needs to transition to cleaner technologies and governments need to block new fossil fuel extraction projects.
Bloomberg’s announcement today is the first in a string of new business-led initiatives and campaigns that are set to be announced in the coming days on the sidelines of the COP26 Summit, including fresh action to tackle methane emissions, mobilise climate finance, and accelerate the roll out of electric vehicles.
