Champions of coal to speak at U.N.

UNITED NATIONS » In May, on a trip to low-lying endangered Pacific islands, the U.N. secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, made one of his boldest calls yet to the world’s presidents and prime ministers.

Don’t build new coal plants after 2020, he said, and certainly don’t pay for them with taxpayer money.

Today, when he hosts the Climate Action Summit, intended to highlight countries that are stepping up their commitments to avert climate change, some of the world’s biggest champions of coal will be allowed to take the podium.

Among the first countries to appear at the summit meeting today will be India. The vast majority of its electricity comes from burning coal, and it continues to develop new coal mines and new coal-fired power plants, often with state subsidies, even as it ramps up renewable energy.

Later in the morning comes Indonesia, the world’s biggest exporter of thermal coal.

China, the world’s coal juggernaut, will follow later in the day. So, too, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kenya — three countries where Chinese state-owned companies are building, or want to build, coal-fired power plants.

Guterres’ predicament is a case study in how hard it is for the world to quit coal, the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel and still its main source of energy for producing electricity.

Coal is plentiful and cheap, though not compared to solar and wind energy in many places around the world. Air pollution from coal mining and coal plants is dangerous to global public health.

Guterres, in a briefing with reporters Friday, said that, in calling for a swift transition away from coal, he was well aware that he could only tell world leaders what he wanted them to do. “That doesn’t mean it will happen,” he said.

He added that he had spoken to Chinese officials about his concern over the role that Chinese companies and banks played in promoting coal both at home, where old coal plants are being phased out, and abroad.

A landmark report last October by a U.N.-backed scientific panel recommended that coal-fired power generation shrink by more than three-fourths by 2030 if the world as a whole is to keep emissions from rising to dangerous levels.

Coal is beginning to lose its luster in many countries, but not in the Asia-Pacific region. India, for instance, is eager to unearth the coal it has under the ground, and its government is seeking to privatize the coalmining sector, including by inviting foreign bids for the first time, Reuters reported.

Worldwide, the global coal plant pipeline has shrunk by half over the past three years, but there are lots of new coal-fired power plants still in the planning stages — and if they go forward, emissions would rise sharply, a report issued last week by the German advocacy group Urgewald found.