The canary leaves the coal mine

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The canary leaves the coal mine

In early 1882, Holborn Circus in central London came alight with a burst of electricity generated by a newly-built facility nearby. The Holborn Viaduct power station became the world’s first coal-fired power plant to produce electricity for public consumption.

The power station itself closed down after only three years, but coalfired plants quickly mushroomed all over the UK and its colonies, Europe, and the US. Even before electricity production, coal had already emerged as the crucial resource to power a new generation of steam engines that gave rise to the Industrial Revolution.

The carbon-rich material quickly became a major commodity and a prized material in the period of the great wars in the first half of the 20th century. Indeed, the international collaboration that developed into the European Union, was founded on the creation of a common market for coal and steel.

Today, coal’s dominance in the west has subsided significantly as environmental concerns grow stronger and cheaper alternatives become more widely available. OECD countries registered a net decline of 68 gigawatts of coal power capacity since the start of the millennium, and EU members retired 62 plants since 2016 according to a live monitoring project by Europe Beyond Coal.

The bloc has 312 coal-fired power stations generating a combined 126 megawatts while Greece and Poland are each planning to add a new facility. However, lack of funding and – in the case of Greece – a set timeline for the phasing out of coal use are putting these projects in doubt.

At a global scale, the rate of planned coal-powered capacity dropped by two-thirds since 2015. But the coal fleet remains in a state of

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overall expansion, driven by China’s increase in commissioning and new permits.

The world’s second-biggest economy accounts for half of the current global capacity and four in ten projects for new coal-fired plants are located in China. But many of these, though not the majority, are designated for back-up power options.

Meanwhile, financial markets are introducing new standards to restrict or ban financing of thermal coal. A growing list of banks, asset managers, pension funds and insurance providers have officially declared that they will assess their investment strategies within the framework of the Paris Agreement, which suggests divestment from the fossil fuels.

The use of coal launched an unprecedented era of human development that has raised quality of life for billions of people. But the coal addiction has taken its toll on the environment, polluting water and air, wiping out natural habitats, generating waste, and dangerously raising the planet’s temperature.

As ironic as it sounds, this arc of development can only reach its potential if the world finds a way back out of the coal mine.