London, 25th June 2025
High-level representatives of governments and businesses called on countries to speed up the early retirement of coal power plants and commit to No New Coal in their new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) due before November’s UN Climate Summit (COP30).
These were the main messages from the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA) event “The Coal to Clean Transition: Progress and Opportunity” co-hosted by the governments of the United Kingdom and Chile today during London Climate Action Week.
Event speakers, including Kerry McCarthy, Minister for Climate, the United Kingdom, Benoît Faraco, Climate Ambassador, France, Ravi Menon, Ambassador for Climate Action, Singapore and Shahjehan Mirza, Managing Director of Private Power Infrastructure Board, Pakistan took stock of the progress in coal phase-out achieved in the last decade since the Paris Agreement and identified priority next steps to accelerate coal phase-out globally in the lead up to COP30.
Key achievements in phasing out coal since the Paris Agreement that have been highlighted at the event include:
- There is a clear economic case for replacing coal with renewables. In 2023, an estimated 96% of new solar and wind capacity had lower generation costs than new coal plants. In addition, 75% of new renewables were also cheaper than existing coal power facilities.
- In the OECD, coal generation has halved since 2007, with one third of countries being coal free already and three-quarters set to eliminate coal by 2030. Since 2015, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, Portugal, Slovakia, the UK and Ireland have phased out coal completely and Italy and Spain are on the cusp of full phase-out this year.
- A vast majority of governments, utilities and investors have already turned their backs on new coal power plants. Since 2015, the total capacity of coal plants in pre-construction has fallen by 76% and 35 countries have abandoned plans for new coal entirely. As of last month, Latin America no longer has any active new coal power plant projects.
- Concrete projects and financing mechanisms are being developed to help emerging economies move away from coal. Interest in financing coal retirement is growing substantially and pioneering coal transition transactions in the Philippines, Indonesia or Dominican Republic are moving towards closure and offering practical lessons.
As evidence of the interest in the finance sector to engage in coal phase-out efforts, Generali Asset Management has joined the PPCA today.
Speakers also acknowledged that while much of the world continues to move away from coal power, the pace of shift remains far too slow to meet the Paris Agreement goal to limit temperature rise to 1.5oC; and identified priority next steps that need to be taken in the lead up to COP30 to strengthen these efforts:
- Developed country governments and financial institutions need to increase the amount of, and access to, both public and private finance for coal retirement, ensure the lessons learnt from current projects are shared and a pipeline of viable projects is significantly scaled up.
- To increase investor confidence and thus attract the necessary financing, emerging economy governments need to commit to No New Coal in their new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) due to be submitted in the lead up to COP30.
Kerry McCarthy, UK Climate Minister said:
“We are at a critical point in the global transition away from coal power. So much has been achieved in the past decade but we must speed up to keep the Paris Agreement 1.5oC goal alive.
There is a growing global consensus that clean energy represents a vast economic opportunity as well as a climate imperative, with even heavily coal-dependent countries exploring ways to retire their plants early.
The UK has led the way by becoming the first G7 country to phase out coal power, and crucially we are reindustrialising our communities with thousands of good skilled jobs of the future in carbon capture, hydrogen and offshore wind through our Plan for Change.”
Benoît Faraco, Climate Ambassador, France said:
“The progress that we have achieved on phasing out coal proves that the Paris Agreement is working, but we cannot rest on our laurels. Ten years since the Paris Agreement, the vast majority of developed countries are on track to phase out coal by 2030. We now need to take decisive action to ensure that developing countries can also share the vast benefits of coal phase-out: stronger economies, reliable power systems that ensure energy security, cheaper energy and better health, among many others. In the lead up to COP30, France will be working through the Coal Transition Commission to ensure its partners get the necessary support to retire their coal plants early.”
Ravi Menon, Ambassador for Climate Action, Singapore said:
“The fight against climate change will be won or lost in Asia. One out of every six tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions comes from coal plants in Asia. Most of these plants have another 30 years to run and it is commercially unviable to shut them down immediately. This is why Singapore is working with other partners to develop innovative financing solutions – like transition credits and blended finance –- to spur the early retirement of these coal plants. We urge sovereigns, corporates, and financial institutions to invest in Asia’s coal-to-clean transition.”
ENDS
More information about the PPCA event “The Coal to Clean Transition: Progress and Opportunity” on 25th June during London Climate Action Week: https://poweringpastcoal.org/events/the-coal-to-clean-transition-progress-and-opportunity/
For more information about the progress and next steps on coal phase-out, please read the letter to the editor of the Financial Times by PPCA Head of Secretariat, Julia Skorupska (24th June 2025): https://www.ft.com/content/1e6a0068-acb8-4f9e-9a07-d2d026c72a1a
Contact:
Anna Drazkiewicz, PPCA Communications Manager, 00 32 487 32 45 62, anna.drazkiewicz@poweringpastcoal.org
