This Coal Plan Offers Only Half a Solution
An effort backed by the Asian Development Bank to push coal into early retirement looks optimistic. It shouldn’t be allowed to eclipse alternatives.
Coal is critical to Indonesia’s energy needs and exports. Yet it needs to be phased out.
Photographer: Ed Wray/Getty
The Asian Development Bank and a handful of financial institutions will take an ambitious proposal to end Southeast Asia’s coal addiction to the COP26 climate talks. They want to speed up the shift away from the dirtiest fossil fuel by buying out coal-fired power plants and closing them early, while fostering green alternatives. Good news, considering the ADB only formally stepped back from funding the black stuff this year and coal power plans in this region risk putting global climate targets out of reach.
As outlined today, though, it’s at best a fragmentary fix.