Although two-thirds of coal plants proposed since 2010 have been delayed or cancelled, the world’s coal-fired generating capacity has still grown by nearly half in the last five years, the Sierra Club and Coalswarm reported last week.
Research by Coalswarm, an open-source project of the Earth Island Institute, points to the industry collapsing, founder Ted Nace told ThinkProgress. “Globally, divestment has made coal projects less attractive, and locally, community activism has prohibited some projects going forward,” Page writes.
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“In India, for example, where since 2012 coal plant projects have been cancelled or shelved six times as often as being completed, civic opposition has been critical, and activists’ successes have not gone unnoticed,” with anti-coal campaigner Priya Pillai barred from travelling to the UK to brief Parliamentarians.
But Sierra and Coalswarm stress that more will have to be done to limit coal development within a realistic climate scenario. “Even if the trend of two coal plant proposals halted for every one plant built continues,” they write, “the remaining one-third will use up nearly all of the available carbon budget for avoiding the internationally recognized 2°C warming threshold.”
