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* U.N. head says G7 nations should commit by June summit
* Ending coal-fired power key to meeting 1.5C warming limit
* Global effort needed to help coal industry workers
By Megan Rowling
BARCELONA, March 2 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - U.N.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on wealthy
nations to end coal use by 2030 so the world can meet its goals
to curb global warming, urging G7 nations to make that
commitment before or at a leaders' summit in June.
In a video message to a virtual gathering of the "Powering
Past Coal Alliance", Guterres said emissions-cutting pledges by
governments fell far short of what is needed to limit climate
heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
But if immediate action were taken to end use of what he
called the dirtiest, most polluting and increasingly costly
fossil fuel in power generation, "then we have a fighting chance
to succeed", he added.
"Phasing out coal from the electricity sector is the single
most important step to get in line with the 1.5-degree goal,"
the U.N. chief said.
Scientists estimate that coal use in electric power
generation must fall by 80% below 2010 levels by 2030 to meet
the 1.5C warming limit, which is the more ambitious goal set by
more than 190 nations in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Guterres said all 37 countries in the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - a group of mainly
high-income nations - should promise to stop using coal by 2030,
and the rest should do so by 2040.
"Science tells us this is essential to meet the Paris
Agreement goals and protect future generations," he added.
The Powering Past Coal Alliance was formed by Canada and
Britain in 2017 to bring together governments and business to
accelerate the phase-out of "unabated" coal power, where there
is no technology in place to remove carbon emissions.
It now has more than 120 members, with 10 new ones joining
on Tuesday, including Hungary, Uruguay, the Japanese city of
Kyoto, and utilities National Grid of Britain and Ontario Power
Generation of Canada, as well as pension providers.
The alliance said in a statement that progress on phasing
out coal had sped up across OECD and European Union member
states, with over 55% of operating coal plant capacity retired
since 2010 or scheduled to retire by 2030.
CHEAPER RENEWABLES
The British government, however - host of both the June G7
summit and this year's U.N. climate talks - has come under fire
for failing to block local plans for a new coal mine in northern
England, which backers say is needed for steel production.
Cumbria county council has now said it will reconsider the
mine application after the independent UK Climate Change
Committee and green groups said going ahead with it could
undermine Britain's push for net-zero emissions by mid-century.
The UK government is considering bringing forward a planned
ban on coal-fired power generation by a year, to October 2024,
with the country's reliance on coal for electricity already
having dropped from 70% in 1990 to under 2% today.
Canada, meanwhile, said in 2018 it would eliminate
traditional coal-fired electricity by 2030, but would continue
to use coal for processes like steel-making. It is the world's
fourth largest exporter of coal for that purpose.
Guterres noted that, as the cost of solar and wind power has
fallen, building new renewable energy capacity has become
cheaper than installing coal-fired plants in virtually all
markets.
He said governments, companies and local authorities should
cancel all coal projects in the pipeline, end international
financing for coal plants and shift investment to renewables.
He also pointed to the need for a global effort to organise
a "just transition" for workers in the coal industry. That would
identify the needs of coal communities where jobs will be lost
and provide concrete solutions at the local level.
The Powering Past Coal Alliance said setting an "early date"
for a fair and complete transition away from coal, that would
protect workers, was a critical first step to reach the
long-term net-zero commitments recently adopted by many
countries.
The alliance and Bloomberg Philanthropies also launched the
"Bloomberg Global Coal Countdown", an online data dashboard that
tracks the retirement of coal plants around the world.
Svenja Schulze, Germany's environment minister, said that in
a world aiming to become climate neutral by the second half of
the century, "coal-based power is an outdated model".
"Investments in renewable energies, however, clearly offer a
competitive edge," she added. "Today, they are already more
cost-effective and create new jobs."
(Reporting by Megan Rowling @meganrowling; editing by Laurie
Goering. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the
charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of
people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly.
Visit http://news.trust.org/climate)
