“The end of coal is in sight”, it is with this very optimistic formula that the British government opened its latest press release. A text that expresses the commitment of some forty countries to no longer use coal to produce electricity by 2030 for developed countries and 2040 for other economies.
“The world is heading in the right direction, ready to end coal while building a future powered by clean energy”, said the British Minister of Energy, Kwasi Kwarteng.
Among the signatories to the commitment, major coal-consuming countries such as Vietnam, the Chili or the Poland. For example, in 2021 Warsaw derives 80% of its electricity from it, a record in Europe. In September 2021, the country was even condemned by European justice for continuing to operate a gigantic mining site in Turow, near the Czech and German borders.
Financial assistance, to the tune of 8.5 million euros, will also be provided to theSouth Africa, country ultra-dependent on coal to get by. But Johannesburg did not initial the pledge.
Brand absent
The only snag in the exciting picture presented by the British authorities, those absent from the list of signatories.
The heavyweights in global coal consumption preferred to abstain. The USA, Russia and theAustralia (one of the main coal exporters) but also theInde or the China. The two demographic giants, 2.8 billion humans between them, continue to import and produce electricity for their electricity. huge amounts of coal. Beijing has even just increased, in the face of the global electricity shortage, its production of one million tonnes per day, bringing it to 11.5 million tonnes per day.
On the NGO side, the reception is therefore rather cautious. For Clément Sénéchal, spokesperson for Greenpeace France on climate issues and present at COP26, it is all the same “an interesting political signal within the framework of the COP26: it gives an impetus to the current negotiations and increases the chances of seeing fossil fuels singled out in the final decision”.
But it remains to be seen how this commitment will be fulfilled in the future. “What are the technical details contained in this statement of good intentions? Is the setting consistent with the timing of the required reductions? … “, asks Clément Sénéchal. For the moment, no details have been given on the legal device that could frame it.
New mine in England
Because the stated ambitions are often contradicted by actions. Despite Boris Johnson’s emphasis in his opening speech at the conference which referred to “an apocalypse clock”, and predict the worst disasters if “we don’t take climate change seriously today”, London has been dragging itself an ecological burden for several months.
A new coal mine could emerge, the first in several decades, in the county of Cumbria, in the north-west of England.
Boris Johnson is currently “not in favor” of the project, but the decision is still pending and should be taken in early 2022. A hesitation that sends a very bad signal in the middle of COP26.
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