The Coal Transition Commission

The Coal Transition Commission is an initiative launched by President Macron at COP28, which has been co-chaired by the French and Indonesian governments and is one of three pillars of the wider Coal Transition Accelerator. The Commission aims to develop practical policy solutions to accelerate coal transitions globally. It is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies with secretarial hosted by the Powering Past Coal Alliance. 

Over the course of the past year the Coal Transition Commission has convened national policymakers, Multilateral Development Banks, private finance and international organisations and experts to gather the lessons from experiences of delivering transitions to date, identify the key obstacles to acceleration and surface potential solutions. On the basis of these consultations the Secretariat has produced a report: “Accelerating Coal-to-Clean Energy Transitions: First Report and Recommendations of the Coal Transition Commission”.  

The report seeks to advance the collective understanding of the opportunities, challenges and potential policy solutions to hasten the transition, building on existing initiatives like the Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs). It lays out the steps that need to be taken by governments, international organisations and standard setters, as well the potential supportive roles that public and private financial institutions could play to create an enabling policy environment, scale up finance for the coal-to-clean transition and build a pipeline of projects, highlighting that doing so is essential to keeping 1.5^oC in reach. 

The report makes a series of recommendations to accelerate the coal-to-clean transition at the speed and scale needed to get on track for 1.5°C:  

• Governments will need to develop long-term power sector and just transition plans, underpinned by policymaker commitments to no new coal, plans to phase out coal power and scale up renewables, to give citizens, businesses and investors clarity and confidence to mobilise behind the transition.  

• Finance for coal-to-clean transition will need to be significantly increased. Public finance providers, including Multilateral Development Banks, should continue to scale up support for these transitions, including by using their technical assistance, project preparation and catalytic capital to reward country ambition and crowd in private finance. 

• Private finance will need to play a key role, and for this to happen at scale regulators could consider clarifying that investing in reducing emissions from existing coal power plants is considered transition finance, subject to appropriate guardrails and disclosures. 

• In addition, given the significant costs associated with the phase-out of coal power plants and a just transition, financial structures will need to be developed that enable these costs to be covered and private investors to make reasonable returns. Governments and technical bodies should continue to develop mechanisms to blend public and private finance and should also explore further innovative solutions, including high integrity coal-to-clean carbon credits to understand their potential, risks and guardrails that may be required. 

• A pipeline of priority projects should be established to accelerate implementation, focusing on early retirement and repurposing for flexibility – the two most important levers for achieving emissions reductions in a 1.5°C pathway. For this to happen, collaboration and capacity building to countries will be needed, and the Coal Transition Commission can drive this work forward. 

The Commission will continue to work towards implementing this roadmap in the run-up to COP30, focusing on creating tailored financing solutions and leveraging lessons from pilot projects to help countries transition effectively and equitably.