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Thousands march against coal ahead of climate meet

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Bonn: Several thousand demonstrators converged on Bonn Saturday ahead of UN climate negotiations demanding that governments step up action to halt global warming, starting with a rapid phase-out of coal-burning power plants.


Decked out in red to signify their “Stop Coal” campaign, the protesters chanted and beat drums as they snaked through the former West Germany capital toward the UN centre that will host the 12-day, 196-nation talks, tasked with implementing the landmark Paris Agreement.


Inked outside the French capital in 2015, the world’s only climate treaty calls for capping global warming at “well under” two degrees Celsius, and 1.5 C if possible.


Earth has already warmed by 1 C compared to pre-industrial levels.


“The lives and livelihoods of millions of people are under threat, entire island states are in danger of disappearing from rising sea-levels,” a coalition of more than 100 civil society groups said in a statement ahead of the march.


“Tackling climate change means a rapid phaseout of fossil fuels, including the burning of coal.” Coal accounts for roughly a third of global energy consumption, and powers 40 per cent of all electricity — twice as much as the next energy source, natural gas.


Compared to gas and oil, coal produces more carbon pollution per unit of energy, making it the “dirtiest” of the fossil fuels.


Coal demand has slowed, especially in the United States where the natural gas fracking boom has undercut its market share. But globally, demand is projected to expand until at least 2030, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).


That growth seriously threatens the Paris Agreement’s temperature goals, UN and energy experts say.


If the world’s nearly 7,000 coal-fired power plants — with a combined capacity of nearly 2,000 Gigawatts — operate to the end of their lifetimes, it will add the equivalent of five years’ of global CO2 emissions to the atmosphere, the UN’s environment agency noted in a report last week.


Another 850 GW of coal capacity is either under construction or in the pipeline, mostly in India, China, Turkey, Indonesia, Vietnam and other Asian countries.


Solar and wind energy — while growing rapidly — still only account for a tiny sliver of global energy production.


According to a study published last week in Environmental Research Letters, holding sea level rise to 50 centimetres by 2100 would become nearly impossible if coal-fired energy is not phased out by mid-century.


“If emissions continue unchecked, oceans could rise by around 130 cm in 2100” — nearly double the maximum forecast in the UN climate science panel’s benchmark report, co-author Carl-Friedrich Schleussner, a scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said.


For small island nations, and those with densely populated low-lying deltas such as Bangladesh, sea level rise on that scale would be catastrophic, experts say. — AFP


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