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Energy day at COP26 saw real progress made in the global coal-to-clean transition. However, the way the UK handled a swathe of announcements and press releases resulted in some confusion and scepticism as to what was delivered. We share our immediate reactions and then dive into the details. In our Coal @ COP26 series, we cut through the confusion and identify how COP26 has captured momentum across data trends and political commitments: E3G’s view is that across these critical elements of the global coal-to-clean transition, COP26 saw significant and substantial announcements that demonstrate positive progress under the UK COP26 Presidency, moving the world closer to ‘consigning coal to history’. For the first time ever, coal was centre stage alongside the formal UNFCCC agenda. COP26 thereby provides a milestone moment for assessing progress. Energy Day brought together the different strands of action from the past decade and opened up new spaces for further efforts after Glasgow. We explore in the following blogs how each of these areas has moved forward. It is unsurprising that there is confusion among many COP-watchers around the coal announcements from COP26. The various press releases from UK Government (Number 10, BEIS) and the COP26 Presidency team pulled together a multiplicity of statements, declarations and announcements – some pre-existing, others new. These were packaged up, with numbers taken from each and combined, without a clear articulation of which announcements were new and which represented prior commitments. In particular, there was an overlap between many of the signatories to the UK’s overarching ‘Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement’ and the membership of the Powering Past Coal Alliance. The PPCA itself grew to 165 members and had its own plenary event in the Energy Day agenda. The Statement provided a means of bringing together pre-existing initiatives such as the PPCA and the No New Coal Power Compact alongside other COP Presidency efforts on Clean Energy and Just Transition. The aim was that the accessibility of the Statement would enable additional governments to step forward with initial efforts on the coal-to-clean transition. Indeed, over 20 countries used participation in the Statement to signal new or additional commitments to action.
The UK hoped that this approach would provide an overarching umbrella narrative of progress made to date and the future direction of travel. The Statement itself had a lower threshold for participation than PPCA membership, which requires formal commitments to no new coal, ending coal finance, and setting a coal phase-out date. The aim was that the accessibility of the Statement would enable additional governments to step forward with initial efforts on the coal-to-clean transition. Indeed, over 20 countries used participation in the Statement to signal new or additional commitments to action. This was a dynamic process: between the initial press releases going out and the events on Energy Day taking place, the numbers of participants changed and major coal countries were added to the list. Some of this messiness was the inevitable outcome of real diplomacy in real-time. But the confusion could have been reduced with a clearer comms plan and simpler approach. The UK’s COP26 Presidency absolutely has a role to play in aggregating positive trends and country commitments across multiple elements of the coal-to-clean transition. But trying to shoehorn this diversity into one singular headline number resulted in nuance being lost while errors crept in, which fed media scepticism. The UK’s COP Presidency absolutely has a role to play in aggregating positive trends and country commitments across multiple elements of the coal-to-clean transition. But trying to shoehorn this diversity into one singular headline number resulted in nuance being lost while errors crept in
The justified frustration with confusing messaging and messy delivery should not distract from the substantive progress, however. The following blogs set out our analysis of the key coal-related announcements and outcomes from COP26, situated in the context of the wider coal transition landscape. Explore how COP26 has impacted the global coal-to-clean transition: Ending international public finance – oil going, gas going, coal gone
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