Reduction in global coal emissions major challenge: IEA

The new IEA special report – Coal in Net Zero Transitions: Strategies for Rapid, Secure and People-Centred Change – provides an analysis of what it would take to bring down global coal emissions rapidly enough to meet international climate goals while supporting energy security and economic growth and addressing the social and employment consequences of the changes involved. This includes the major implications for the coal sector of a transition to net zero emissions by 2050, which would give the world an even chance of limiting global warming to the critical threshold of 1.5°C.

The new analysis in the special report, which is part of the World Energy Outlook series, shows that most of the current global coal consumption occurs in countries that have pledged to achieve net zero emissions. However, far from declining, global coal demand has been stable at near record highs for the past decade. If nothing is done, emissions from existing coal assets would, by themselves, tip the world across the 1.5°C limit.

The report says that there is no one single approach to putting coal emissions into decline. The new IEA Coal Transition Exposure Index highlights the countries where coal dependencies are high and transitions likely to be most challenging: Indonesia, Mongolia, China, Vietnam, India and South Africa stand out. A range of approaches, tailored to national circumstances, is essential, the report adds.

A massive scale up of clean sources of power generation, accompanied by system-wide improvements in energy efficiency, is key to unlock reductions in coal use for power and to reduce emissions from existing assets. An important condition to reduce coal emissions is to stop adding new unabated coal-fired assets into power systems. Governments can provide incentives for asset owners to adapt to the transition to clean energy.

International collaboration, public financial support and well-designed approaches that incorporate the need for people-centred transitions will be essential in the move away from unabated coal.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (KD)