In a highly unusual move, the three leaders of the main UK political parties – Prime Minister David Cameron of the Conservatives, Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats and Ed Miliband of the opposition Labour party – have signed a joint pledge that they will work together across party lines to tackle climate change. Among other things, they have pledged to end the use of “unabated coal” for power generation.
The three-point pledge, signed on Valentines Day 14 February, reads as follows.
“Climate change is one of the most serious threats facing the world today. It is not just a threat to the environment, but also to our national and global security, to poverty eradication and economic prosperity.
Acting on climate change is also an opportunity for the UK to grow a stronger economy, which is more efficient and more resilient to the risks ahead. It is in our national interest to act and to ensure that others act with us.
2015 offers a unique opportunity to accelerate that opportunity, with countries pledging their contributions to action before the world comes together at Paris at the end of the year to reach on agreement on tackling climate change. It is vital that this agreement is a success, and the UK will play its part in ensuring an ambitious outcome.
That is why we pledge:
* To seek a fair, strong, legally binding, global climate deal which limits temperature rises to below 2°C.
* To work together, across party lines, to agree carbon budgets in accordance with the Climate Change Act.
* To accelerate the transition to a competitive, energy efficient low carbon economy and to end the use of unabated coal for power generation.”
The agreement, which was brokered by the NGO Green Alliance, supported by Christian Aid, CAFOD, Greenpeace, RSPB and WWF, followed the launch of the Climate Coalition’s “Show the Love campaign”, which has thousands of people in the UK wearing green hearts and “telling the world what they love that could be lost to climate change”. It was welcomed by, among others, Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever and Jürgen Maier, CEO of Siemens, who said: “The low-carbon transition represents a major economic opportunity and a consistent UK policy framework was a crucial factor in Siemens’ decision to make a multi-million pound investment in wind turbine production and installation facilities in Hull. This demonstration of cross-party support sends a clear message that the UK remains a good place for global companies to do low-carbon business.”
For the UK energy sector, the cross-party pledge to “end the use of unabated coal for power generation” is important, although no date is mentioned in the pledge. According to a “briefing” supplied by the Green Alliance, the UK government projects that all coal generation (unless equipped with carbon capture and storage) will be ended by 2027, but this assumes a significant increase in the carbon price. According to the briefing, recent modelling by Imperial College London shows that up to 9 GW of unabated coal power could still be on the system in 2030 if no actions are taken.
In a press release, the Green Alliance refers to a reaction by Nicholas Stern, who is Co-Chair of the new Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. According to Stern, the UK pledge puts into practice a key recommendation of the New Climate Economy report, which reads: “OECD countries should commit now to end the building of new unabated coal-fired power generation and accelerate early retirement of existing unabated capacity” in order to achieve long-term economic stability and growth.
The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate is supported by a number of existing organisations such as the World Resources Institute, the Global Green Growth Institute, the Stockholm Environment Institute, Tsinghu University and the Ethiopian Development Research Institute.
The Green Alliance further refers to a new report by E3G titled ‘Assessing the balance of risks associated with coal plant closure’. This report “underlines the feasibility of a coal-phase out in the UK and challenges the mainstream view that closing down coal plants is impossible because of the need to ensure that ‘the lights stay on’.”