77 countries vow to phase out coal

THIS WOULD BE A SIGNIFICANT STEP TOWARDS CURBING TEMPERATURES SPIKE TO HALT WARMING

UN conference host Britain said 77 countries had pledged to phase out coal, dirtiest of the fossil fuels that drive global warming, as a study showed the carbon dioxide they release into the atmosphere had already rebounded to near pre-pandemic levels.

“We were expecting to see some rebound,” said the study’s lead author Pierre Friedlingstein, a climate modelling researcher at the University of Exeter. “What surprised us was the intensity and rapidity of the rebound.” Alok Sharma, British president of the two-week COP26 conference in Glasgow, said it was on its way to gradually ending use of the world’s most widely used fuel — coal.

He said yesterday 77 countries had signed a pledge to phase out coal-fuelled power generation — which accounts for more than 35 per cent of world’s power — and stop building new plants.

A big step forward

In 2020, carbon dioxide emissions fell by a record 1.9 billion tonnes — a 5.4 per cent drop — as countries locked down and economies ground to a halt because of the coronavirus pandemic. The new report, produced by the Global Carbon Project, forecasts emissions will rise by 4.9 per cent this year.

Nevertheless, the IEA said that, if the emissions-cutting pledges made so far were all fulfilled, the rise in the global temperature could be limited to 1.8 degrees Celsius since preindustrial times. This would be a significant step towards the 1.5C the UN says is needed to halt potentially irreversible climate effects that would dwarf the intensifying storms, heatwaves, droughts and floods that the world is already experiencing.

“New @IEA analysis shows that fully achieving all net zero pledges to date & the Global Methane Pledge by those who signed it would limit global warming to 1.8C,” IEA chief Fatih Birol tweeted. “A big step forward, but much more needed!” The IEA, the world’s top energy watchdog, this year said that to achieve the UN goal of ‘net zero’ emissions by 2050, no new fossil fuel projects should be approved after 2021 — a goal the pledge hailed by Sharma is certain to miss.

Reuters ■ An Extinction Rebellion activist wearing a clown’s nose stands next to police officers during a protest outside BAE Systems, as the UN Climate Change Conference, in Glasgow.