Community Development Associations in Eti-Osa Local Government Area and Eti-Osa Local Council Development Area have appealed to residents to allow peace to reign to enable the Ambode administration focus on delivering development to the people.
The Lekki-Ajah Road toll plaza
Responding to the anxiety among residents over the plan by a disaffected group to protest the recent hike in tolls at the two toll gates managed by the Lekki Concession Company, the communities noted that an alternative route exist for those who do not wish to patronise the toll gates.
A statement signed by the Chairman, Eti-Osa Local Government Area, Community Development Committee, Prince L.D. Moshood, and his counterpart in Eti-Osa East Local Council Development Area, Mr. Ayinde Ariwaja, urged parents and guardians to ensure that their innocent children are not drafted into any action that will lead to the disturbance of public peace.
Noting that the Akinwunmi Ambode administration has embarked on many people-oriented projects which have made life of the common people meaningful, the community noted that toll increase involved consultation of stakeholders such as Community Leaders, National Union of Road Transport Workers and Chiefs in the areas.
“We participated in the consultation which led to the new charges and our intervention led to the reduction of the rates earlier proposed. We believe it is a sacrifice to make to have a road that is well maintained to ensure free flow of traffic, reduce many hours spent and ensure safety of passengers and motorists,” the leaders were quoted as saying.
The community leaders recalled the chaotic situation of the road and the insecurity of lives and properties on the Ozumba Mbadiwe-Epe Ajah Road which led to the clamour for the Lagos State Government to intervene.
“That intervention which involved fund from private investors enabled the State to respond to our yearnings and give us a first class corridor compared to anywhere in the world.”
They said they would continue to engage the management of the LCC to ensure that it responds more urgently to the needs of the communities by embarking on corporate social responsibility projects in health, education and capital development.
Experts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will meet in Quito, Ecuador, on February 12 to 16, 2018 to advance preparations of the “Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate”.
IPCC Vice-Chair, Ko Barrett
The Second Lead Author Meeting of the report will bring together around 100 experts from more than 30 countries, and is hosted by the Government of Ecuador.
The report on the ocean and cryosphere is one of three special reports that the IPCC, the leading body for assessing the science related to climate change, is releasing over the next two years.
The cryosphere – from the Greek kryos meaning cold or ice – is a word to collectively designate the areas of the Earth where water is found in its solid state. This includes ice sheets, frozen lakes and rivers, regions covered by snow, glaciers, and frozen soil.
“IPCC authors are assessing scientific literature about changes in the ocean and the frozen parts of our planet, their effects on ecosystems and humankind and options for adapting to them,” said IPCC Vice-Chair, Ko Barrett. “This report will help policymakers better understand the changes we are seeing and the risks to lives and livelihoods that may occur with future climate change.”
The meeting in Quito, the second of four lead author meetings for the report, will lead to the preparation of the First Order Draft which will be circulated for expert review in May 2018. The report will be finalised in September 2019.
“The ocean and the cryosphere play essential roles in the climate system and the ecosystem services that humankind depends on,” said Hans-Otto Poertner, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group II. “Scientists are also trying to understand how the frozen and liquid water bodies of our planet interact, and how sea level will change and affect coastlines and cities.”
Mr Poertner noted that glaciers are already retreating in the Andes, with impacts on water supplies for large cities such as Quito. “Furthermore, the region hosts unique ecosystems with high biodiversity which are now challenged by human-induced climate change on top of other human influences,” he said.
The report is being prepared by IPCC Working Group I, which assesses the physical science basis of climate change, and Working Group II, which deals with impacts, adaptation and vulnerability.
Tarsicio Granizo Tamayo, Minister of the Environment of Ecuador, and Maria Victoria Chiriboga, Undersecretary of Climate Change, as well as IPCC co-chairs, will address the opening ceremony of the meeting on Monday, February 12, while a public event presenting the work of the IPCC will take place on February 16.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) Nigeria on Thursday, February 8, 2018 unveiled the 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan to support 6.1 million people affected by insurgency in the northeast states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
Mr. Edward Kallon, the UNDP Resident Representative to Nigeria
Mr Edward Kallon, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, said at the plan presentation in Abuja that the initiative would gulp $1 billion.
Kallon said the response plan was a clear and positive indication of the strong and continued partnership between the international humanitarian community and Federal Government.
According to him, 7.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance this year in
Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
He added: “These are people who have been displaced and are living in camps or host communities, people who have returned home to nothing, and people living in other areas that are hard to reach for humanitarians.
“A total of 6.1 million of these people are being targeted for humanitarian assistance in the 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan by 60 organisations, including UN agencies and international and national NGOs.
“This humanitarian assistance ranges from food, protection, water, shelter and sanitation, to medicine, education and agricultural support, and will be delivered to vulnerable women, children and men across the three states.”
The coordinator added that the plan would be implemented through 173 projects.
He explained that the 6.1 million targetted persons for the plan was arrived at by the agency after
meticulous and thorough consultation with humanitarian partners, including the Federal Government.
He said the aim of the plan was to build on the humanitarian work carried out in previous years and to
provide food assistance, including through improved agriculture, to 3.7 million people.
He added that 2.7 million vulnerable women, children and men would also receive support services and
be protected “due to violation of their rights.”
“Medical care is also a priority and will be provided to 5.1 million people.
“Many children and pregnant and nursing women are malnourished as a result of the insurgency crisis in the North East, as such, nutritional supplements and support will be given to 2.7 million of them.
“In many locations, access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities remain a big problem: we aim to support 2.7 million people in need of those basic services.”
Kallon said the plan would provide shelter and basic household items to 1.3 million persons living in camps or host communities, while 2.2 million children and teachers would be supported through education assistance, including the provision of safe spaces for learning, school supplies and teacher trainings.
The coordinator said for longer-term impact, 2.7 million people would be supported to access basic public services and restarting their lives.
He noted that in 2016 and 2017, in close cooperation with Federal Government, the humanitarian community provided life-saving assistance and helped to stabilise living conditions for millions of people.
He pointed out that in spite of these achievements, many challenges remained, as the conflict and population movements continued, stressing that prior to the crisis, the region was already mired by chronic development challenges.
He urged stakeholders to continue with the outstanding work of recent years.
The Police on Thursday, February 8, 2018 arraigned an 18-year-old herder, Abu Shagari, in a Makurdi Magistrates’ Court in Benue State, for alleged open grazing.
Herdsmen grazing their cattle
The prosecutor, Sgt. Abdulkarim Abubakar, had told the court that the accused person was arrested by a team of vigilance group, led by Gwaza Jacob.
He said the accused person was subsequently handed over to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) in Makurdi on Jan.21.
Abubakar said the team was on patrol along Adaka Road in Makurdi metropolis when they saw the accused person navigating his cattle to openly graze on the field.
He said the accused person hailed from Shabu village, in Nasarawa State.
The prosecutor averred that other herders in company of the accused person were at large.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the accused person pleaded guilty to the charges.
The prosecutor pray the court to enter a summary judgment on the accused person, based on his guilty plea in line with Section 157 of the CPC.
However, My Jijani Ahmed, counsel to the accused person, had urged the court to reverse the plea of guilty to not guilty in the interest of justice.
He said his client must be given the opportunity to defend himself and for the prosecution to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt before a judgment could be entered.
The Magistrate, Mr Emmanuel Azembe, held that the accused person must give full explanation of his plea and the consequences that followed it.
He asked Shagari to show cause why the court should not convict him on the grounds of his plea.
The magistrate, however extended a life line to the accused person by asking if he could change his plea to “not guilty.’’
Shagari after understanding the implication of his initial plea, was compelled by his counsel to change it to “not guilty.’’
The magistrate ordered the remand of the accused person in prison and adjourned the case until Feb. 20 for hearing.
UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, in her opening remarks at the Commission for Social Development’s side event on poverty eradication in New York on Tuesday, February 6, 2018 wants Nigeria to utilise her vast human and natural resources to eradicate poverty. She was on a panel with WorldWide Nigeria and Ify Ofong, National Coordinator, Women in Development and Environment, Nigeria. Excerpts of her presentation:
Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photo credit: African Union Commission
I applaud the goal of this event, to honestly assess, through the lens of local action, poverty eradication and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The 2030 Agenda (for Sustainable Development) is the most ambitious plan Governments have ever developed to eradicate extreme poverty and safeguard our planet. While it is a global agenda, it will only be achieved by addressing the multidimensional aspects of poverty and through ensuring ownership on the part of communities, local authorities and individuals.
There are many examples of local actors, cities and state governments, in particular, that are creating new development pathways, overhauling their plans and budgets and taking other innovative steps to achieve the ambitious SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) targets.
Durban, South Africa, and Cauayan City in the Philippines have aligned their development plans with the SDG targets, while local governments in Benin have made SDG progress a condition for accessing national funding. Meanwhile, Kaduna State in Nigeria conducted a robust multi-level data exercise to analyse how all of its residents, particularly the most vulnerable, are faring in relation to each Sustainable Development Goals.
We need more of these local SDG leaders. At the 2017 session of the high-level political forum, it was revealed that local and regional governments have participated in only 57 per cent of the national voluntary reviews. We will not achieve the SDGs if such low engagement with local governments continues.
To achieve the SDGs, all communities must be engaged substantively. We must also increase our knowledge of local conditions. All data must be disaggregated, capturing the lives of residents in the most rural areas and densest informal settlements. And we must act on that knowledge with finance that reaches the communities most in need. Global and national funds must be decentralized and new financial instruments developed in cities and States.
As a former Minister, I know the important role of community-focused programmes and projects. In my current role, I see, even more clearly, the value of local actions in realising global development efforts. Organisations such as yours complement national and local governments.
You know as well as anyone the conditions that can make or break efforts to expand development opportunities to everyone. Across Nigeria, local initiatives led by state governments, civil society actors and financiers are making outstanding contributions to poverty reduction.
The Ekuri Initiative, for example, which is located in the Cross River State, seeks to sustainably manage the forest as a community asset, generating income, subsistence materials and food. The Smallholders Foundation is using rural radio broadcasts to educate 250,000 farmers on modern agricultural and environmental management techniques, to provide up-to-date market information, and give farmers a platform on which to advertise their products.
Nigeria, like many African countries, is at a crossroads. The country has an opportunity to build on recent economic, political and social gains and to leverage its vast human and natural resources to eradicate poverty. At the same time, many internal conflicts are challenging the genuine efforts of Nigeria’s leaders, including the insurgency in the north-east, the issue of militancy in the Niger Delta and disputes between herders and farmers, thus undermining and reversing development gains.
To address these challenges, we must prioritise an integrated response to peace, security, human rights and development. And we must improve our efforts to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts while promoting inclusive, sustained and equitable development.
Harnessing the power of partnerships will be critical. We must deepen the joint and coordinated efforts of the federal Government, state governments, local authorities, private sector and civil society organisations. Nigeria has taken concrete steps in this direction.
Under the leadership of the Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria launched the first national Private Sector Advisory Group on the Sustainable Development Goals, to coordinate public-private partnerships and amplify locally-driven solutions to achieve the SDGs. The (Private Sector Advisory Group) includes 13 diverse partners, including Lagos Business School, the Dangote Group, General Electric and the Sahara Group.
The Sustainable Development Goals Centre for Africa is another inspiring example of partnership mobilisation to achieve the SDGs. Chaired by Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Aliko Dangote, CEO of the Dangote Group, the Centre brings together national Governments, civil society and private sector leaders to collectively devise SDG solutions such as advancing inter-country projects on sustainable infrastructure and development of new platforms to better connect communities to achieve the SDGs.
Meanwhile, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has stimulated inspiring partnerships between the Ministers, immunization and health experts in Nigerian states and private sector companies to strengthen vaccine cold chain infrastructure in Nigeria. Together with initiatives such as Project Last Mile and Coca-Cola, the Foundation aims to increase the number of Nigerian children who can access life-ensuring vaccines, with the focus on the most vulnerable and hardest to reach children.
Similar work is under way elsewhere in Africa, such as in Ethiopia, where the Gates Foundation is supporting the advancement of national priorities and reinforcing Government leadership in the areas of agriculture and health through partnerships across the country that aim to improve agricultural productivity and increase the coverage of life-saving health and nutrition interventions.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is also partnering with the relevant authorities to promote SDG localisation in Anambra, Benue, Kaduna and Kogi states, and to support implementation and monitoring of SDG-based state development plans.
The promise of the 2030 Agenda to leave no-one behind cannot be kept without translating global goals into local action. This requires concerted and coordinated efforts at all levels of decision-making, and the empowerment of local actors.
To eradicate poverty and ensure a life of dignity for all, we must work with the world’s most vulnerable people at the level of their everyday realities to make extreme poverty a problem of the past. I look forward to working closely with you all.
As the impacts of climate change accelerate around the world, young people need the skills to adapt to these impacts to the greatest extent possible, and to be able to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The UN supports many initiatives to promote youth climate action, and showcases the work of leading initiatives at UN Climate Change Conferences. One such initiative is the Global Youth Climate Pact, which operates in 22 countries.
Members of the Global Youth Climate Pact, Chile
Global Youth Climate Pact is working towards getting decision-makers to incorporate climate change into all education policies. And it is raising awareness about the threat of climate change, along with showcasing exemplary projects that build resilience to climate change.
A good example is that of a group of Chilean school children in the town of Chincolco who have been helping to introduce farming practices that allow plants to grow without soil, just using nutrients and water – an important measure given that their region is increasingly threatened by hotter temperatures which is drying out agricultural land.
This is just one of the projects were recently presented at the “Congress of the Future” conference in Santiago, Chile, where students presented their climate projects to more than 500 participants, outlining climate action strategies that are either planned or are in the process of being implemented in their schools and communities.
“Students need access to education to provide them with a fundamental understanding of why climate change is important for them to be able to develop and implement innovative climate change adaptation strategies, that will have a positive impact in their communities,” said Alfredo Pena-Vega, the Scientific Director of the Global Climate Pact. “This is especially true in countries most vulnerable to climate change impacts, and where young people often live in remote areas with limited access to formal education.”
Other projects presented at the Congress of the Future were that of a school in Chile which monitored its CO2 emissions, and another school in the country which measured the acidity of the sea water. Among the international initiatives showcased were a waste management project in Nepal, and a project to train trainers of indigenous pygmy youth in the Congo region to better deal with the impacts of deforestation.
About the Action for Climate Empowerment Youth initiative of UN Climate Change
UN Climate Change strives for youth empowerment through its Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) initiative, which implements Article 6 of the Framework Convention on Climate Change and Article 12 of the Paris Agreement. ACE promotes youth action all over the over the world and organises youth events before and during UN Climate Change conferences.
A joint report on youth climate action and the implementation of a roadmap will be presented at the UN Climate Change Conference COP24 in Katowice, Poland, in December of this year.
In addition, a Global Youth Action Plan for Climate is designed to bring young people from participating countries to the UN Climate Change Conference in 2020 with the opportunity to exchange experiences, and to show the results of their actions to other young people, as part of the secretariats’ Youth initiative.
A new network of African journalists working for major media in four key elephant range countries will increase conservation coverage on the continent, and amplify African voices in the international debate about wildlife protection.
L to R: Janet Murikira of Baraka FM, Collins Omulo of Daily Nation, Caroline Chebet of The Standard, Jeckonia Otieno of The Standard, Dan Kaburu of K24-TV and Evelyn Makena of People Daily
The Giants Club African Conservation Journalism Fellowships gathers professional reporters in Botswana, Gabon, Kenya and Uganda, which together hold more than half of Africa’s remaining 415,000 elephants.
Coverage of conservation issues in African media is increasingly frequent, and increasingly comprehensive. The Fellowships are designed to accelerate that trend.
There is a growing editorial appreciation in Africa that “conservation” stories encompass more than reporting on endangered wildlife. This is an emerging sector earning Africa significant international attention, which has huge potential economic, environmental and social advantages.
But “conservation” is also an issue riven with misunderstandings, poorly understood nuances, and conflicts.
As Africa’s population doubles in the coming 30 years, public pressure will increase for land to be used for farming or human settlement. In that context, protecting habitats for wildlife can be interpreted as wasteful.
But bringing meaningful international investment from businesses like renewable energy or eco-tourism means that land can earn local people and national exchequers significantly greater dividends than, for example, subsistence farming.
That is what the organisation that I work for, Space for Giants, believes and aims to achieve.
It does so by facilitating the deals that bring investment to these landscapes, and by securing their assets – wildlife, and natural habitats – by working to thwart poachers and reduce the costs to local people of living alongside wildlife.
With assets safe, more investment comes, and more dividends flow.
What does all this have to do with journalism? I’m a former reporter. For more than a decade I was the Daily Telegraph’s correspondent based in Nairobi.
I believe that news stories that give facts and present others’ experiences accurately are the best way to inform people about any issue. Then their choices about where they stand on that issue are built on the strongest foundations.
I’m now Communications Director for Space for Giants. It is to the organisation’s credit that it recognises it can achieve its vision of a secure future for elephants and their landscapes forever not only by training intelligence-led anti-poaching units, strengthening poaching prosecutions, or building fences to keep farmers’ crops safe.
It can also do so by helping to accelerate the growth of strong, independent, science-led journalism about conservation issues across Africa. That’s where the Giants Club African Conservation Journalism Fellowships come in.
Already, the first six of what will become 24 Fellows have joined the programme, from Kenya. They are Jeckonia Otieno of The Standard, Evelyn Makena of People Daily, Janet Murikira of Baraka FM, Dan Kaburu of K24-TV, Caroline Chebet of The Standard, and Collins Omulo of the Daily Nation.
The programme will soon expand to Botswana, Uganda and Gabon, three of the eight countries in Africa where Space for Giants now operates. In total, we are aiming for 24 Fellows in the first year.
The Fellows will continue to work for their newspapers, and television and radio stations, with a renewed focus on tracking down and covering more conservation stories.
I will help to connect them to new contacts to provide context and information for their reporting, and encourage greater discussions around topics among African audiences. Anyone working in that sphere can contact Space for Giants to be put directly in touch with the Fellows.
But I believe we also need more African voices heard in global discussions about conservation, especially about protecting Africa’s wildlife and wild spaces.
That’s why you’re reading this. And it’s why on the Giants Club pages of independent.co.uk you will soon be seeing regular news and features directly reproduced here from the Fellows’ reporting in Africa.
The Giants Club is an initiative of Space for Giants that unites the Presidents of those four countries – Botswana, Gabon, Kenya and Uganda – with global businesses, philanthropists, influencers, and conservationists. Its patron is Evgeny Lebedev, the owner of ESI Media, which includes independent.co.uk.
Evgeny funds the Fellowships, and is giving space here for us to bring the best of the reporters’ work to an international audience. How that issue is seen on the continent is very different from how it is seen elsewhere, as the reporting you will start to see here is likely to illustrate.
By Mike Pflanz, Communications Director, Space for Giants
The year 2017 was a record year for offshore wind in Europe, according to statistics released on Tuesday, February 6, 2018 by WindEurope. Europe installed 3.1 GW of new offshore wind, taking total capacity to 15.8 GW, an increase of 25% in just one year.
An impression of the floating wind farm
Some 13 new offshore wind farms were completed, including the world’s first floating offshore wind farm, Hywind Scotland. The UK and Germany accounted for most of them, installing 1.7 GW and 1.3 GW respectively. Europe now has over 4,000 offshore wind turbines operating across 11 countries, making a total of 15.8 GW of installed and grid-connected capacity.
The average size of the new turbines was 5.9 MW, a 23% increase on 2016. And the average size of the new offshore wind farms was 493 MW, a 34% increase in 2016. Capacity factors are increasing too. There are projects in Europe operating already at capacity factors of 54% (Anholt 1, Denmark) or even 65% (Dudgeon, UK).
A further 11 offshore wind farms are currently under construction, and they’ll add another 2.9 GW. The project pipeline should then give us 25 GW total by 2020. But offshore wind in Europe remains heavily concentrated in a small number of countries: 98% of it is in the UK, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium.
Giles Dickson, WindEurope CEO, said: “A 25% increase in one year is spectacular. Offshore wind is now a mainstream part of the power system. And the costs have fallen rapidly. Investing in offshore wind today costs no more than in conventional power generation. It just shows Europe’s ready to embrace a much higher renewables target for 2030. 35% is easily achievable. Not least now that floating offshore wind farms are also coming on line.”
2017 also saw final investment decisions (FIDs) taken a further 2.5 GW new capacity. These investments are worth a total €7.5 billion. This is down on 2016. But it reflects falling costs. Plus the fact that new investments could still get feed-in-tariffs in 2016. The transition to market-based support (auctions) has slowed down new investments, not least there’s a time-lag between winning an auction and confirming an investment. Auctions held in 2016 and 2017 should translate to FIDs worth €9 billion in 2018.
Beyond 2020, things are less clear. Much depends what new offshore wind volumes governments commit to in the National Energy and Climate Action Plans for 2030 (NECAPs).
Dickson added: “We’ll see further growth in 2018 and 2019. But the longer term outlook for offshore wind is unclear. Very few countries have defined yet what new volumes they want to install up to 2030. The National Plans governments are preparing under the Clean Energy Package will tell us more. The message to Governments as they prepare their plans is ‘go for it on offshore wind’: it’s perfectly affordable and getting cheaper still; it’s a stable form of power with increasing capacity factors; and it’s ‘made in Europe’ and supports jobs, industry and exports.”
Secretary-General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), John E. Scanlon, who will soon be completing his mandate with the Convention, has said that, during his eight-year tenure, the nature conservation watchdog made extraordinary strides in the fight against illegal wildlife trade.
In a message issued on Wednesday, February 7, 2018 and titled: “Completing my mandate as CITES Secretary-General”, Scanlon, who had spent three years with the UN Environment Programme in Nairobi prior to being CITES secretary-general, disclosed that he would relinquish his current office on April 6, 2018 and take up a fresh career challenge as Global Advocate for African Parks from April 9.
Apparently elated by his achievements, Scanlon said that “tangible results” from “collective efforts” were visible.
“We have a highly capable Secretariat team in place that enjoys the confidence of CITES Parties and its many partners. I am proud to be leaving the Convention and its Secretariat in a very strong position.”
He pointed out that, closer to his departure date, he would extend his personal thanks to CITES Parties and Committees, partners and Secretariat staff, “and will offer some reflections on my tenure as Secretary-General”.
African Parks, he added, takes on direct responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of protected areas in partnership with governments and local communities, through what he described as a unique and highly effective public-private partnership.
The organisation, he noted, recently announced HRH Prince Henry of Wales (Prince Harry) as its President. “I look forward to joining the team and helping to grow its outreach, partnerships and portfolio, and to be a voice for wildlife more generally,” said Scanlon.
On how the next head of CITES will be appointed, he stated: “Since mid-January, I have been working very closely with the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, his Chief of Staff, and the Chair of the CITES Standing Committee in ensuring a smooth transition to my successor.
“We are working together to ensure the recruitment process is conducted expeditiously and in a way that respects UN personnel rules and the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the CITES Standing Committee and the Executive Director, which was agreed to and signed in 2011. Here is a very brief overview of the recruitment process.
“The Secretary-General of the UN appoints the CITES Secretary-General and he/she is employed as a UN Secretariat staff member through the UN Environment Programme.
“The UN Secretary-General will have three or more names presented to him by the Executive Director, one of which must be a man and one of which must be a woman, following a recruitment process that is conducted by the Executive Director.
“The Executive Director will conduct the recruitment process in accordance with UN personnel rules, which will include advertising the position and establishing an assessment panel to interview short listed candidates and recommend suitably qualified candidates to the UN Secretary-General.”
While less new coal-fired power plants are now being built in China and India, the planned expansion in the use of coal in fast-growing emerging economies, such as Turkey, Indonesia and Vietnam, will in part cancel out the reduction. Only if the countries of the world actively counteract this trend, they can achieve the climate goals agreed in the Paris Agreement.
A power plant fired by coal
These are the results of the study “Reports of coal’s terminal decline may be exaggerated,” authored by researchers from the Potsdam Institute on Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
“The coal problem is by no means self-defeating, despite all the advances in renewable energy. If the international community wants to achieve its greenhouse gas emission reduction goals to avoid the greatest climate risks, then it must act decisively,” says PIK’s Chief Economist, Ottmar Edenhofer, who is also Director of the MCC. “It would take a coal exit, worldwide. The best way to do this is, from an economic point of view, a substantial carbon pricing. It may look different from one country to another, but a coalition of pioneers should do the first step – this very decade. ”
In 2016, China and India have each cancelled more than 50 percent of their plans to build new coal-fired power plants, according to the study. However, globally coal investments are further increasing. Turkey, Indonesia and Vietnam, for example, plan to increase their capacity altogether by about 160 gigawatts. This is about as much as the output of all existing coal-fired plants in the 28 EU countries.
In addition, other countries’ planned future investments in coal have been massively extended in 2016. Investment plans in Egypt, for example, have increased almost eightfold, while they have nearly doubled in Pakistan. These developments jeopardise countries’ ability to meet their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), as CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants would increase almost tenfold from 2012 to 2030 in Vietnam, for example, and almost quadruple in Turkey.
“It is true that China has recently invested less in coal and has perhaps even passed its peak in carbon emissions,” says Edenhofer. “This has rightly received a lot of attention – but to speak of the end of coal is premature. Recent data also show that China is increasingly investing in coal-fired power plants abroad.”
If current plans are implemented, emissions from coal would nearly exhaust the remaining global carbon budget, which is determined by the Paris Agreement’s target to limit global warming to less than two degrees Celsius. According to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), if the world wants to likely stay below the two-degree threshold, it may only release another estimated 700 to 800 gigatons (Gt) of CO2 into the atmosphere.
However, the existing infrastructure including, for example, power plants and buildings, is expected to emit about 500 Gt already if used to the end of its lifecycle. The coal-fired power plants currently under construction and those additionally planned would amount to another 150 Gt. Under these circumstances, additional emission growth, for instance, resulting from growth within the transport sector or agriculture would then exceed the total budget. The newly published study is based on data of the US-based organisation CoalSwarm and the International Energy Agency (IEA) as well as on subsequent research by the authors.
“Although the costs of renewables have recently fallen, they still can’t compete with cheap coal in many parts of the world,” says Jan Steckel, head of the MCC working group Climate and Development. “The financial costs for renewable energy in these countries are stagnating at a relatively high level. In order to incentivise investments in renewables, capital costs would have to be reduced by means of intelligent policies, such as the use of credit default swaps.”
The researchers advocate politically feasible solutions for a global coal exit. For example, coal could be pushed out of the energy markets by means of a roadmap to shut down coal mines, stricter power plant regulations and higher carbon prices worldwide. This could be combined with using the revenues from carbon pricing for a socially just transition of tax systems or the expansion of socially necessary infrastructure.
