By Paul Homewood
I covered Matt McGrath’s report last week on the then ongoing discussions re the IPCC report. Tucked away right at the end was this paragraph:
A new analysis by a group of environmental organisations says that 1,380 new coal plants or units are planned, or under development, in 59 countries. If built, these plants would add 672,124 megawatts of energy capacity to the global coal plant fleet – an increase of 33%.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45742191
I doubt whether any of these new plants contradict anything pledged in INDCs at Paris, which rather underlines the whole futility of the exercise there.
And while some of the plants may replace older polluting ones, countries who are building them certainly will not be prepared to close these new ones prematurely.
Globally, coal power generation currently accounts for about 47% of total power, so an increase in capacity of 33% will add signficantly to that share, particularly given that these modern, efficient and clean plants will likely be run at much higher utilisation levels.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
October 13, 2018 at 05:00AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 