Coal Elimination Treaty
Imagine one idea that could eliminate 40 per cent of the world’s greenhouse pollution and save millions of lives this century
The Coal Elimination Treaty would see coal mining and burning phased out globally by the early 2030s. It would save hundreds of thousands of lives lost to cancer and respiratory illness every year.
Yet coal communities have given generations of work to this industry and should not be left behind.
This is a plan to make a just and rapid global transition out of coal and achieve a major win in the world’s fight against catastrophic climate change.
The case for a Coal Treaty
Coal mining and fine particulate pollution contribute to the premature death of millions of people around the world every year, including hundreds of thousands in India and China.
It has caused 80 per cent of the world’s historic greenhouse pollution - 40 per cent annually. Planned coal plant investment will cause a 317 per cent overshoot of the world’s remaining carbon budget to prevent catastrophic climate change.
Yet the Paris Agreement’s voluntary structure is failing and is being held back by fossil fuel states.
What a CET could achieve
The CET could eliminate 40 per cent of global emissions by the early 2030s and buy time to address transport, cement, farming and deforestation. There are, at most, 4-6 years of current emissions left before the world has locked in catastrophic climate change.
Global epidemiologists estimate that rapid carbon emission reductions to stabilise heating at 1.5°C–2°C would prevent 150 million premature deaths by 2100. The CET proposal empowers marginalised climate actors and states whose concerns about the existential threat of climate change have been ignored.
The proposal
Under a CET, the world’s states would phase out and ban coal mining and burning as one by 2030.
Developing countries would be assisted with a ‘fossil fuels transition fund’ raised by taxes on fossil fuel imports and sales. Governments would support coal-dependent communities with Green New Deal-style policies to stimulate sustainable new industries and livelihoods, as has been successfully achieved in Germany.
Initially reluctant states might join later, so long as their plans are consistent with restricting global heating to 1.5°C.
How it could be done
Using either the WHO’s World Health Assembly or the UN General Assembly, states can negotiate a treaty that has wide global support but cannot be vetoed by recalcitrant powers. Momentum can be driven by civil society and climate-vulnerable and high-ambition states such as those in the Powering Past Coal alliance.
States and civil society can build global awareness of the humanitarian and climatic impacts of coal, and share best practice approaches to just transitions for coal communities. Cities, provinces and businesses committed to sustainability can get behind the proposal and mirror its 2030 phase out goal.
Why not just stick with Paris?
Under Paris, states have pledged non-binding emission reductions (Nationally Determined Contributions, or INDCs), which will only hold warming to 2.4°C. Major countries refuse to increase their pledges. UNFCCC voting rules enable a single state to block new initiatives and more accountability.
By using the General Assembly the CET empowers high-ambition states to create a new framework for action. While stepping outside the UNFCCC it will support the Paris goals - coal reductions will support better NDCs. Like the 2017 nuclear ban treaty, the CET will create a powerful global norm against fossil fuel pollution and empower the vulnerable.
If there is a fossil treaty & a powering past coal alliance, why do we need a CET too?
The PPCA aims to phase out coal by 2038, many years too late, and is voluntary & aspirational. It will never have the force of binding international law. The fossil fuel NPT is a valuable proposal but could be too ambitious to be concluded quickly. A coal treaty can pave the way for a stronger treaty that includes all fossil fuels before 2040. The climate emergency is so serious that we need legally binding 1.5C consistent plans now, not more promises.
ENDORSE THE COAL ELIMINATION TREATY
We, global citizens, communities, and organisations concerned by the dangerous future promised by unchecked climate change, support this proposal to phase out and ban the mining and burning of coal around the world. We urge all governments to begin negotiations on such a treaty.