Twenty nations signed onto the Canada-United Kingdom Powering Past Coal Alliance at the United Nations climate change conference in Germany last month. None of them are among the world’s biggest consumers of coal power, such as China, the United States, India, Germany and Japan. The Paris climate change accord aims to keep risks associated with climate change from skyrocketing by limiting global warming to less than two degrees Celsius by the end of the century. McKenna acknowledged having China at the Powering Past Coal Alliance table would be hugely beneficial to bringing the rest of the world into the coal-phase out plan. Germany’s Urgewald environmental group tracks coal plants and says there are 1,600 new plants being planned in 62 countries.

Source: National Post December 05, 2017 18:45 UTC