Campaigners publish analysis showing amount of coal-fired generating capacity in pre-construction planning fell 14 per cent during first half of 2016
The amount of coal power capacity under development fell sharply during the first half of the year, as tighter environmental regulations continued to bite and developers and governments absorbed the implications of last year's Paris Agreement.
That is the conclusion of a new report published today by the CoalSwarm Global Coal Plant Tracker, an environmental campaign-backed initiative which aims to monitor levels of coal industry development. It found that the total amount of coal-fired generating capacity in pre-construction planning dropped from 1,090GW in January to 932GW in July, a decline of 14 per cent globally.
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The slowdown was most pronounced in East Asia where the pipeline contracted by 22 per cent, the researchers said. The total reduction recorded worldwide of 158 GW is approximately the size of the entire coal-fired generating capacity of the EU.
CoalSwarm director, Ted Nace, said action was still urgently needed to further restrict the pipeline for new coal plants. "While the recent shrinkage in the coal plant pipeline is significant progress, much steeper reductions are needed to avoid serious danger," he said in a statement. "The levels of capacity in construction (350 GW) and in planning (930 GW) far exceed the carbon budget for limiting warming to 1.5C. Further, a new report from the IEA shows 6.5 million deaths a year from air pollution, with coal a main factor."
However, there are signs that the recent slowdown is a direct result of climate policy measures. The biggest drops in the pipeline were recorded in China and India, where 114GW and 40GW respectively were axed.
In April, China announced a raft of new rules to restrict coal plant and mine development in its provinces, while India's Ministry of Power recently announced a pause in thermal power plant development.
The latest figures follow a report from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit think tank earlier this year, which argued the coal power plant pipeline in Asia was more vulnerable than the industry claims.
The study, Asia's Tigers: Reconciling coal, climate and energy demand, suggested that while China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia had 1,824 coal-fired power plants slated for construction in the next five years, based on cancellation and postponement rates for each country, only around 500 will actually get completed. It added cancellation rates could prove even higher if the countries make good on their Paris Agreement climate commitments.
Earlier this week China became the first major economy to ratify the Paris Agreement, committing itself to peaking its greenhouse gas emissions around 2030 and drastically increasing investment in clean energy sources.
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