Twenty countries launched a coal phase-out initiative Thursday at UN climate talks in Bonn where America was under fire for the Donald Trump administration's defence of Earth-warming fossil fuels. Led by Canada and Britain, the "Powering Past Coal Alliance" commits the nations, cities, and regions to weaning themselves off a commodity that still produces about 40 percent of the world's electricity - a major contributor to global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
The list includes Angola, Belgium, Finland, France, Italy, the Marshall Islands, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, and Mexico, as well as the regions of Ontario, Quebec, Washington and Alberta, and the city of Vancouver.
"This is another positive signal of the global momentum away from coal, benefiting the health of the climate, the public and the economy," said Jens Mattias Clausen of Greenpeace. "But it also puts on notice the governments who lag behind on ending coal, or those who promote it, that the world's dirtiest fossil fuel has no future." Sweden and Scotland, along with California, Beijing, Berlin and New Delhi, have also said they will phase out coal, but are not part of the alliance. Later Thursday, an American official will address the penultimate day of the annual climate gathering.
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