The urgency of phasing out coal reached new heights in 2023. The PPCA played a key role in bringing its end closer, by encouraging countries and organisations to make ambitious 1.5c aligned coal phase-out commitments and elevating the issue to the top of the global agenda. As we enter the new year, we look back at the key developments that shifted the dial on coal phase-out last year, which will form the core of our work in the coming year.
Coal is the single largest source of carbon emissions that cause climate change. With 2023 officially the hottest year on record, the urgency to take action to phase out coal has never been clearer. The latest reports issued last year, including by the IPCC, UN agencies such as the UNFCCC and UNEP, and the IEA brought home just how fast the window for action is closing, underlining the need to immediately stop new unabated coal power plants now, radically accelerate the coal-to-clean transition within the next 7 years, and completely end global emissions from coal by 2040 to keep the 1.5°C goal alive.
The current global trajectory remains far from these goals. However, we did see significant progress in the transition from coal to clean power in 2023, with the PPCA as a driving force behind many of these efforts to increase the momentum needed to urgently phase out coal in the coming years.
Organizations
Read the full report: https://poweringpastcoal.org/news/2023-in-review-the-key-developments-shifting-the-dial-on-coal/