• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
  FEATURED
BREAKING: Fossil Fuels Fall 25% by 2030, Renewables ‘Keep the Path Open’ in IEA Net-Zero Update September 26, 2023
Green Space Groups Gear for Bigger Fights After Ontario Reverses Greenbelt Land Grab September 25, 2023
Community-Driven Solutions Can Take Back Ontario’s Electricity Future: Torrie September 25, 2023
‘Apex Oil and Gas Lobby’ Undercuts Canadian Sovereignty, Laxer Tells Foreign Influence Probe September 25, 2023
Momentum Builds Toward COP 28 as Countries Back Fossil Fuel Phaseout September 25, 2023
Next
Prev

U.S. Seeks to Counter Canada, UK with Global Pro-Coal Alliance

December 15, 2017
Reading time: 3 minutes

Hundreds of COP 23 participants line up to observe and mostly protest a White House delegation side event touting 'clean' coal and nuclear energy as climate solutions, November 13, 2017 in Bonn. Photo: Mitchell Beer/The Energy Mix

Hundreds of COP 23 participants line up to observe and mostly protest a White House delegation side event touting 'clean' coal and nuclear energy as climate solutions, November 13, 2017 in Bonn. Photo: Mitchell Beer/The Energy Mix

 

The United States is launching a campaign to counter the Powering Past Coal Alliance recently organized by its two closest allies, Canada and the United Kingdom, aiming to lock poor countries into decades of future coal purchases.

The U.S. Energy Department will lead the drive to form a so-called Clean Coal Alliance to promote construction of new coal-fired power plants, particularly in developing countries with no domestic fossil resources, administration sources revealed.

  • Concise headlines. Original content. Timely news and views from a select group of opinion leaders. Special extras.
  • Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
  • The Weekender: The climate news you need.
Subscribe

“The effort is meant to be a counterweight to nations like Canada and the United Kingdom, which formed an anti-coal coalition” last month during COP 23 in Bonn, writes E&E News [subs req’d], in a report republished by the U.S. Governors Wind and Solar Energy Coalition.

White House energy aide George David Banks told the outlet the U.S. campaign is necessary to challenge what he called “an anti-fossil fuel movement being aggressively pursued by a number of countries and environmental activists.”

Canada and the United Kingdom joined diplomatic forces to promote the elimination of coal burning in developed countries by 2030, and globally by 2050. At French President Emmanuel Macron’s One Planet Summit earlier this month, several new sign-ons brought total participation in the alliance to 33 countries and 24 businesses.

The Trump administration, however, is eager “to boost exports of U.S. coal as domestic utilities turn increasingly to cheap natural gas and renewable power,” E&E observes.

The U.S. is also looking for allies in resisting the larger international community’s urgent efforts to reduce fossil combustion in pursuit of the Paris agreement goal of stabilizing average global warming below 2.0ºC. According to E&E, America will invite “big coal exporters and importers—Australia, Indonesia, China, India, Ukraine, Poland, Japan and others”—to join its pro-coal alliance.

The American delegation at COP 23 promoted wider use of fossil fuels, as did Energy Secretary Rick Perry at an earlier conference in South Africa. In both venues, U.S. envoys promoted the image of “U.S. coal exports and coal technology as cleaner than those being developed by other nations,” E&E reports.

The claim that American coal technology is “clean” is, of course, brazenly misleading. All hydrocarbons release greenhouse gasses when burned. Coal, in particular, releases a wide spectrum of other toxic particulates, gases, and radioactive pollutants, as well.

An earlier Republican administration in Washington imagined in a report published in 2007 that a US$36-billion market would exist by 2030 for what it described then as “clean coal technology (CCT)” that would “allow coal to be burned with lower emissions of carbon dioxide.” The report anticipated sales of U.S. coal and coal-burning technology to China, India, South Korea, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, and the European Union.

Today, several of those jurisdictions are seeking to phase out their use of coal entirely, and the latest American push appears to be targeted instead at poorer nations. The New York Times reports that the administration also intends to pressure the World Bank and other development agencies to reverse restrictions on lending for the construction of new coal-fired plants in the developing world. In a landmark announcement at the Macron summit, however, the World Bank made it clear it was moving in the opposite direction.

In the same spirit of colonial exploitation and commercial abuse that saw previous generations of toxic products like DDT continue to be peddled to poor countries long after they were eliminated in richer ones, America’s “clean” coal alliance now threatens to saddle many of the same nations with expensive, dirty, and climate-busting power for decades to come.



in Asia, Australia, Canada, China, Coal, COP Conferences, Energy Politics, India, International Agencies & Studies, UK & Europe, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Jason Blackeye/Unsplash
International Agencies & Studies

BREAKING: Fossil Fuels Fall 25% by 2030, Renewables ‘Keep the Path Open’ in IEA Net-Zero Update

September 26, 2023
213
Duffins Agriculture Preserve/North Country House Media via Greenbelt Foundation
Ontario

Green Space Groups Gear for Bigger Fights After Ontario Reverses Greenbelt Land Grab

September 25, 2023
89
UNDP/flickr
Heat & Power

Community-Driven Solutions Can Take Back Ontario’s Electricity Future: Torrie

September 26, 2023
102

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Jason Blackeye/Unsplash

BREAKING: Fossil Fuels Fall 25% by 2030, Renewables ‘Keep the Path Open’ in IEA Net-Zero Update

September 26, 2023
213
Cullen328/wikimedia commons

Manufactured Housing Could Dent the Affordable Housing Crunch with Energy-Efficient Designs

September 20, 2023
388
Wilson Hui/flickr

‘Apex Oil and Gas Lobby’ Undercuts Canadian Sovereignty, Laxer Tells Foreign Influence Probe

September 26, 2023
102
UNDP/flickr

Community-Driven Solutions Can Take Back Ontario’s Electricity Future: Torrie

September 26, 2023
102
Duffins Agriculture Preserve/North Country House Media via Greenbelt Foundation

Green Space Groups Gear for Bigger Fights After Ontario Reverses Greenbelt Land Grab

September 25, 2023
89
United Nations/Twitter

Momentum Builds Toward COP 28 as Countries Back Fossil Fuel Phaseout

September 26, 2023
80

Recent Posts

UniEnergy Technologies/wikimedia commons

Multi-Day Storage Can Deliver Cheaper Grid Reliability, Battery Maker Says

September 25, 2023
64
David Mellis/flickr

Top Food Brands Prepare for Supply Chains Disrupted by Climate Change

September 25, 2023
51
Power lines, Mississauga, Canada

Two First Nations Groups Vie to Build Northern Ontario Power Line

September 25, 2023
76
UN Climate Change/flickr

Don’t Attend COP 28 Unless You’re There to Help, Figueres Tells Oil and Gas

September 24, 2023
471
Jon Sullivan/flickr

Thorold Gas Peaker Plant Won’t Be Built After Unanimous City Council Vote

September 21, 2023
674
Rewat Wannasuk/Pexels

Virtual Power Plants Could Cut Peak Demand 20%, Save U.S. Grid $10B Per Year

September 20, 2023
128
Next Post
U.S. Department of Energy

More Canadians Working in Green Jobs Than Oilpatch

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
The Energy Mix - Energy Central
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}