“Let’s stop building new coal-fired power plants”, hammer together the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA). Yet, despite many warnings from experts, “the end of coal-fired power plants is still not in sight”, reports the annual report of the Global Energy Monitor, published on Tuesday. Despite the dramatic consequences on the climate, projects for the construction or extension of coal-fired power plants are therefore still flourishing in 34 countries, mainly in China.
In total, the world has more than 2,400 coal-fired power plants in operation in 79 countries, representing nearly 2,100 gigawatts (GW) of generating capacity. New coal-fired power projects are expected to further increase this total by 457 GW. “There are only 170 plants left, or 5% of the fleet in operation today, which are not affected by a gradual shutdown date or a carbon neutrality objective”, indicates the report of the American think tank, associated for the occasion with eight other international environmental organizations: Sierra Club in the United States, Kiko Network in Japan, CAN Europe, Life in India, BWGED in Bangladesh, as well as Crea, E3G and COFS.
If the global trend is towards a slowdown in the installation of coal-fired power plants – apart from in 2021, a post-Covid rebound effect obliges – China “continued to be the glaring exception to the current decline of developing power plants,” note the authors of the report. In 2021, 56% of the production units commissioned were in China, 14% in India and 11% in Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia. China alone has almost as many plans to open coal-fired power plants as the rest of the world has plans to close. In question: the resumption in the country of building permits for these power plants at the beginning of 2022. The logical continuation of the “rewriting the country’s energy policy”, caused by power shortages and rationing in more than half of China’s provinces by the end of 2021.
Very hypothetical projects
Elsewhere in the world, the call launched in Glasgow at COP26 – the international climate conference – to abandon the construction of new coal-fired power stations to curb climate change, has “created an impression of dynamics”. Thus, 65 countries have pledged to no longer build coal-fired power plants, i.e. 36 more than in January 2021. Within the OECD, 86% of countries currently have no new coal projects in progress. Six nations within the organization nevertheless formally continue to consider new projects: the United States, Australia, Poland, Mexico, Japan and Turkey, although many of them “have no chance of seeing the light of day”.
Indeed, it is “unlikely” that the project supported in the United States by former President Donald Trump “come to an end”. The report also considers that the planned Polish plant in Leczna should not be built “given European climate policy“. In Africa, where the COP27 scheduled for Egypt is to be held, twelve countries still have projects related to this fuel. The report points out that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s commitment to no longer finance the construction of coal-fired power plants abroad “renders many African projects obsolete”, China being the main financial backer for new power plants on the continent. Despite everything, doubt persists as to the fulfillment of the contracts already signed. “To date, it is unclear whether China will cut the cord for the 56 planned power plants that its state-owned banks and private companies plan to finance,” notes the report.
A decision of the first importance since natural disasters are increasing in the world, alert the United Nations, which calls for stopping the self-destruction in which humanity has embarked. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction points out, in a new study, that extreme events are increasing rapidly all over the world. This is due to man-made climate change and inadequate risk management. Thus, between 350 and 500 medium and large-scale disasters have occurred each year over the past two decades. In addition, the cost of these disasters has averaged around 170 billion dollars (nearly 159 billion euros) per year over the past ten years.
Millions of lives at risk
Episodes of drought, extreme temperatures, floods… The number of these disasters is expected to rise to 560 per year – or 1.5 per day – by 2030 (compared to 400 in 2015), and endanger millions of lives . “The world must do more to integrate disaster risk into the way we live, build and invest,” hammered the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed, calling on the international community to disengage humanity from this “spiral of self-destruction”. “We need to turn our collective complacency into action. Together, we can slow the pace of preventable disasters.”
The UN regrets that the world has a misperception of the risks associated with natural disasters, and attributes it to a “under estimation” risks and feelings of“optimism” and D’“invincibility”. The scale and intensity of disasters are on the rise, with more people killed or affected by disasters in the second half of the past decade than in the first. Moreover, they have a disproportionate impact on developing countries, which lose on average 1% of their GDP per year due to these extreme events, compared to 0.1% to 0.3% in developed countries. The highest cost is borne by the Asia-Pacific region. “Disasters can be avoided, but only if countries invest the necessary time and resources to understand and reduce the risks”, noted Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction. “By deliberately ignoring risks and not integrating them into the decision-making process, the world is funding its own destruction.”