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A new report on the coal sector in the European Union (EU) says there is no hope of greenhouse gas emission reduction targets being met unless at least a quarter of the coal-fired power plants now operating in the region are phased out within the next three years.

BERLIN taz | Wenn Deutschland Ernst machen will mit dem Klimaschutz, müssen hier 2017 und 2018 etwa ein Dutzend Kohlekraftwerke stillgelegt werden. Das sind vier mehr als bisher geplant. Eine nächste Welle der Abschaltungen müsste es dann rund um 2020 geben und bis spätestens 2030 wären alle deutschen Kohlekraftwerke kalt. Das ist das Ergebnis einer neuen Studie des Thinktanks Climate Analytics, im Auftrag der dänischen KR-Umweltstiftung.

Belchatow, Poland, to close in 2027. Neurath, Germany, to burn its last lump of lignite in 2029 or 2030. That is what meeting the climate goals world leaders agreed in Paris means for the EU’s biggest coal power stations, according to a report by Climate Analytics.

EU countries should close all of their coal plants by around 2030 if they wants to stick to the Paris Agreement on climate change. This is the conclusion of a new report by research non-profit Climate Analytics. The cheapest way to meet Paris targets is to replace EU coal power with renewables and energy efficiency, it says.

Every coal plant in the European Union should be closed by 2030 and every single one in the world should shut by 2050 in order to meet commitments under the Paris Agreement on climate change, according to a new report. Researchers at Climate Analytics founds replacing coal with renewable energy was the cheapest way to achieve the targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The European Union will “vastly overshoot” its Paris climate pledges unless its coal emissions are completely phased out within 15 years, a stress test of the industry has found. Coal’s use is falling by about 1% a year in Europe but still generates a quarter of the continent’s power – and a fifth of its greenhouse gas emissions.

Brussels (AFP) - The European Union must close all 315 of its coal-fired power plants by 2030 in order to meet its commitments under the Paris climate agreement, a research institute said Thursday. The goal set at the December 2015 Paris conference to maintain average temperature increases to less than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels requires the gradual closure of EU coal plants, Climate Analytics said.

Climate change is bad news for desert oases across Maghreb, the North African zone that encompasses the arid Saharan nations of Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Algeria. The drying trend is likely to continue, says Climate Analytics' Dr Carl-Friedrich Schleussner.

"Over the next five to 10 years, if we succeed in bending the present upward curve of emissions and ramp up climate action — meaning that by 2025 emissions are well and truly on a downward trajectory — then we will be able to say the agreement is working," says climate scientist Bill Hare.

“The strongest moral leadership in this process has always come from the vulnerable countries,” he said. “And not just in providing that leadership but in actually committing to do more.” Bill Hare, climate scientist and director of Berlin-based Climate Analytics, said Trump’s surprise victory did dampen the mood in Marrakech — for a day. “People bounced back quickly, thinking ‘well, okay, we can also do tough.’ “