Canada, U.K. lure four more states into global push to wean world off coal
OTTAWA — Canada and the United Kingdom have drawn four more U.S. states and two major American cities into their global alliance to kick the world of its coal energy habit, even as U.S. President Donald Trump touts a coal renaissance in his country.
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna is in California for a global climate change summit where the Powering Past Coal Alliance welcomed 10 more signatories, including the states of New York, Minnesota, Connecticut and Hawaii. The cities of Honolulu and Los Angeles in the United States, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Wales in the United Kingdom, the Australia Capital Territory and the Balearic Islands in Spain also signed the plan.
The goal of the alliance is to get the developed world to stop burning coal to make electricity no later than 2030, and the rest of the world by 2050. Canada, which now gets about one-tenth of its electricity from coal, has committed to phasing it all out by 2030.
More than two dozen nations, 17 state, provincial and city governments, and 28 corporations have joined the alliance, most of them being lesser users of coal like Canada.