On Eve of Climate Talks, a Historic Week in the Shift Beyond Coal
In the tug-of-war over the future of our climate and our planet, there have been some very big developments this week.
On Tuesday, the United Kingdom announced it will completely phase out coal throughout the country over the next decade, retiring over 20 gigawatts of coal-fired electricity. The UK, which once employed 1 million coal miners and used coal to power the Industrial Revolution, is now the first major country to end the use of coal. Sierra Club director Mike Brune described it as a "historic, unprecedented" commitment.
Also on Tuesday, the OECD countries (an organization made up of 34 industrialized nations, initially formed after WWII to administer the Marshall Plan) announced they had reached an agreement on strict new limits for the financing of new coal plants around the world. While the agreement isn't as strong as we would have liked, it's still a big deal for coal and for international climate diplomacy.
However, not to be outdone, on that same Tuesday back in Washington, DC, the U.S. Senate made a valiant stand against the future by voting to repeal the Clean Power Plan, the Environmental Protection Agency road map to reduce carbon pollution from power plants. It was an embarrassing display of theatrics that won't actually slow down the Clean Power Plan, clean energy, or US climate leadership going into international climate negotiations in Paris.
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