How to get to badlands from burning steppes

In 2019 alone, China opened 102 mines, GEM data shows. While China has pledged to stop financing coal projects abroad, it is still building coal plants and opening mines at a fast pace.Д¬hina has more than 1,200 major coal plants in operation, and has plans to build some 150 more, according to the Global Energy Monitor (GEM), which tracks fossil fuel infrastructure and financing around the world. ThatвЂ™s to keep the lights on for its 1.4 billion people, but also to make huge amounts of goods for export, and heavy-industry items - steel, cement, chemicals - used all around the world. It was in China that the world saw the first large-scale coal mine as we know them, some 3,000 years ago, and China is likely to be the country that seals coalвЂ™s fate.Д¬hina now consumes more coal than the rest of the world combined. The UK government on Thursday announced that 23 new countries - including big coal users like Poland and Vietnam - and dozens of organizations had committed to stop building new coal projects and to phase out the fossil fuel by the 2030s for developed nations, and 2040s for the developing world.Дespite all this progress, a true global transition from coal will only happen when China decides.Д¬hina consumes more coal than the rest of the world combined вЂњTo meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, all countries need to raise their ambition and act urgently to consign coal to history.вЂќ

вЂњThis has effectively ended public finance for overseas coal projects,вЂќ Sharma told CNN. China made a similar commitment in September, which removed the biggest source of international coal financing on the planet. The G20 did agree to stop financing international coal projects by the end of the year, he pointed out. Yet Alok Sharma, the British lawmaker chairing COP26, is hopeful it can still happen. Consigning coal to history is a requirement to rein in rapid climate change, but it may not happen as quickly as Western climate leaders may like. Coal prices last month were at an all-time high.ДЇor every Belgium, Austria and Sweden there is a China, India, and Indonesia, where coal is still king. The current global energy crisis, triggered by a quicker-than-expected economic rebound amid the pandemic, has even given it a bump. Coal plants are still on rise throughout much of Asia, and while power generation from coal technically peaked in 2013, it has basically plateaued since then. A report by climate think tank E3G found a 76% reduction in proposed coal power since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015.Д«ut the trend is distributed unevenly. Globally, proposed coal plants are rapidly being canceled. A slow but steady increase in wind power is also helping put coal out of business. In the US, which technically has no coal phaseout plan, coal has wound down dramatically in favor of natural gas, which emits about half the carbon dioxide.

The picture is fairly rosy in western Europe and even the United States, where it seems the fossil fuel is indeed on its last legs, save for some pockets of resistance.Д«elgium, Austria and Sweden are among a growing number of European countries that no longer use coal to generate electricity. It will be a tough ask to convince developing countries to go further than the rich world. Last year, the country went for 67 days without using any coal for power at all.Д¬limate leaders at the COP26 talks in Glasgow, Scotland, will on Thursday intensify their efforts to put an end date on the use of coal, the biggest single contributor to the climate crisis.ДЄt the G20 meeting in Rome over the weekend, leaders failed to specify how they would phase out coal. In 2012, 40% of the UKвЂ™s power came from coal. The Eggborough power station is just one of 14 coal plants the United Kingdom has laid to rest over the past decade.

How to get to badlands from burning steppes