Coal news and updates

EGEB: 76% of proposed coal plants have been canceled since 2015

In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):

If just six countries took action now, it would eliminate 82% of the remaining coal pipeline.

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The coal plant pipeline’s global decline

The global pipeline of proposed coal plants has collapsed by 76% since the Paris Agreement in 2015, according to a new report by E3G. The independent European think tank reports:

Since 2015, 44 governments (27 in the OECD & EU, 17 elsewhere) have already committed to no new coal, opening a pathway for remaining countries that are yet to act. We find that a further 40 countries (eight in the OECD & EU, 32 elsewhere) are without any projects in the pre-construction pipeline and are in a position where they could readily commit to “no new coal.”

Globally, 1,175 GW of planned coal-fired power projects have been cancelled since 2015. Accelerating market trends have combined with new government policies and sustained civil society opposition to coal. The world has avoided a 56% expansion of the total global coal fleet (as of June 2021), which would have been equivalent to adding a second China (1,047GW) to global coal capacity.

China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Turkey, and Bangladesh account for over four-fifths of the world’s remaining coal plant pipeline as of July 2021. If those six countries took action, it would eliminate 82% of the pre-construction pipeline.

The remaining 18% is spread across a further 31 countries, and 16 of those have just one project. 

China is the last remaining major provider of public finance for overseas coal projects. If China ended that, it would result in the cancellation of more than 40 gigawatts (GW) of pipeline projects in 20 countries.