x
Help Us Guide You Better
best online ias coaching in india
2017-11-17

Download Pdf

banner

Environment
www.thehindu.com

Police vehicles drive into the premises of the Weisweiler coal-fired power plant near Aachen, Germany on November 15, 2017. According to the dpa news agency environmental activists occupied coal supply routes of the plant.   | Photo Credit: AP

Britain and Canada are launching a new alliance aimed at encouraging countries to phase out the use of coal as part of efforts to curb climate change. The Global Alliance to Power Past Coal is being unveiled on November 16 at an international climate meeting in Bonn.

While coal-fuelled power stations are considered one of the biggest sources of carbon dioxide that’s heating up the Earth’s atmosphere, countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam and the United States are planning to expand its use in the coming years. Even Germany and Poland, hosts of climate talks in 2017 and 2018, are holding onto coal for the foreseeable future.

The new anti-coal alliance is expected to include Finland, France, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand and several U.S. states committed to the Paris climate accord.

Warm, warmer: on climate change

Meanwhile, a Norwegian investment fund that manages assets worth over $80 billion is pulling investments from 10 companies over their involvement in the coal sector.

Storebrand, Norway’s biggest private pension provider, says it divested from companies including German energy company RWE, Poland’s PGE and Eskom Holdings of South Africa.

Its chief executive, Jan Erik Saugestad, said on November 16 the decision is meant as a warning to utility companies to “clean up” their energy sources “or lose customers and investors”.

Storebrand said it hopes the much larger Norwegian Sovereign Wealth fund, which holds $1 trillion generated from the country’s sale of oil, will follow its divestment decision.

END
© Zuccess App by crackIAS.com