Nearly half of global coal plants will be unprofitable this year
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Re: Nearly half of global coal plants will be unprofitable this year
#2If this comes true which is a BIG if since the calculations include "carbon pricing and pollution policies" which are not happening anytime soon in China.
It will be almost completely due to the cheap price of natural gas not renewables as the article implies.
Re: Nearly half of global coal plants will be unprofitable this year
#3But at such low prices unfortunately OIL and natural gas will be burning even more in Chinese factories and other uncaring nations who place profits over health everyday.
Re: Nearly half of global coal plants will be unprofitable this year
#4If this comes true which is a BIG if since the calculations include "carbon pricing and pollution policies" which are not happening anytime soon in China. It will be almost completely due to the cheap price of natural gas not renewables as the article implies.
Every coal plant closed is a coal plant closed.
Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
China can make no changes and we can still make the world a better place. Start with your neighborhood first.
Re: Nearly half of global coal plants will be unprofitable this year
#5If this does happen it would represent a win for everyone, but a substantial intellectual victory for the people who delayed action against climate change in the '00s and '10s. If we're all going to switch to renewables in the '20s for economic reasons then it would have been madness to force their adoption 10 years earlier to deal with a threat that materialises in 2050+.
Re: Nearly half of global coal plants will be unprofitable this year
#6If this does happen it would represent a win for everyone, but a substantial intellectual victory for the people who delayed action against climate change in the '00s and '10s. If we're all going to switch to renewables in the '20s for economic reasons then it would have been madness to force their adoption 10 years earlier to deal with a threat that materialises in 2050+.
> then it would have been madness to force their adoption 10 years earlier to deal with a threat that materialises in 2050+.
Unless the economic cost of switching in the 2000s would have been substantially lower than the extra damage of 20 years of pollution will inflict in the 2050s.
In the past 20 years, we've added 50 PPM of CO2 to the atmosphere. That's one third of all CO2 emissions that humanity has produced in its history.
Re: Nearly half of global coal plants will be unprofitable this year
#7If this comes true which is a BIG if since the calculations include "carbon pricing and pollution policies" which are not happening anytime soon in China. It will be almost completely due to the cheap price of natural gas not renewables as the article implies.
Every coal plant closed is a coal plant closed. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. China can make no changes and we can still make the world a better place. Start with your neighborhood first.
I didn't say anything about good/bad just that the article is implying something very different than reality.
Re: Nearly half of global coal plants will be unprofitable this year
#8If this does happen it would represent a win for everyone, but a substantial intellectual victory for the people who delayed action against climate change in the '00s and '10s. If we're all going to switch to renewables in the '20s for economic reasons then it would have been madness to force their adoption 10 years earlier to deal with a threat that materialises in 2050+.
You have this completely and utterly backwards. Please understand these issues better before spreading this kind of misinformation. Delaying carbon mitigation has only meant that necessary measures are much more severe than they would have been. Not only that, but we are way past the point of being able to prevent many horrible effects of climate change. Fast action now will only stave of even worse things.
If you haven't noticed, climate change is already here, and it hurts.
Re: Nearly half of global coal plants will be unprofitable this year
#9If this does happen it would represent a win for everyone, but a substantial intellectual victory for the people who delayed action against climate change in the '00s and '10s. If we're all going to switch to renewables in the '20s for economic reasons then it would have been madness to force their adoption 10 years earlier to deal with a threat that materialises in 2050+.
a) The economic snowball we're finally starting to see for renewables is largely driven by governments finally being forced by the undeniable reality to take real regulation steps.
b) The economic cost of waiting 10 years to address an exponential process is going to far outweigh the cost there would've been to give an extra "oomph" to action, I'm sure.
Re: Nearly half of global coal plants will be unprofitable this year
#10> It looked at 6,696 operational plants and 1,046 in the pipeline and found that 46% will be unprofitable this year, up from 41% in 2019
I thought this is due to Covid-19 but apparently it's a chronic trend.
> That will rise to 52% by 2030 as renewables and cheaper gas outcompete coal, the think tank said.
A very slow one too.