Concerns over the environmental integrity of ‘coal transition’ carbon credits The environmental integrity of a carbon credit reflects the extent to which they represent emission reductions that are accurately and completely measured against an appropriate baseline of what would have happened in the absence of the revenues from the sale of credits. [...] Existing and proposed methods to quantify the emission reductions associated with early coal retirement typically struggle to fully capture the dynamic effects of rapidly rising regulatory and political pressure to limit and end coal use in the power sector as well as the pace of renewable cost reductions, with clean alternatives already cheaper options than operating existing coal plants across a. [...] Given that reducing coal generation emissions is typically one of the cheapest abatement options available to countries, applying a corresponding adjustment for coal transition credits is likely to simply raise the cost of meeting existing national climate targets, increase the likelihood that the targets are not met, or lead to no overall change in the countries’ emissions profile (Fearnehough et. [...] Solutions that advocate cutting emissions while still relying on coal usage represent false solutions that fail to address the urgency of the climate crisis and as a result the risk of asset stranding or the imperative for early retirement. [...] The challenges and risks associated with the early retirement of coal plants are further explored in the accompanying report Financing coal phase-out: Public Development Banks’ Role in the Early Retirement of Coal Plants (2024), which examines the role of public development banks in collaborating with national governments, utilities, and independent power producers.
- Pages
- 26
- Published in
- Germany
