Welcome to the E3G OECD & EU Coal Transition Progress Tracker. This is part of E3G’s ongoing work to provide an accessible analysis of the country-by-country status of the global coal landscape. You can find our tracker on progress towards No New Coal here.
Keeping the world on track for a below-1.5C pathway requires the rapid retirement of the global coal fleet. IPCC analysis is clear that this means all OECD countries must have exited coal by 2030, with the rest of the world doing likewise by 2040.
This interactive tool aims to capture progress toward coal phase-out in the OECD/EU, as countries move rapidly toward a coal-free future, including:
- The growth of time-bound coal phase-out commitments.
- The coal share of electricity generation.
- Data on existing, planned and cancelled coal capacity (in GigaWatts, GW).
You will find ‘coal-free’ countries are at the top, with laggards that are still considering new coal power projects at the bottom. Countries are then ordered by the intended year of phase-out commitment.
Coal phase-out commitments are categorised as follows:
- No coal refers to countries that have never had, or considered coal (post-1960).
- Coal free refers to countries that have at some point had a coal fleet or considered new coal since 1960, but are now coal-free.
- Year refers to countries’ most recently announced coal phase-out commitments.
- No date refers to countries that don’t have a specific coal phase-out date.
- Colour-coding relates to whether commitments are aligned with the 2030 date required for a <1.5C aligned future.
Coal capacity data is based on Global Energy Monitor’s Global Coal Plant Tracker database. Capacity statuses are defined as follows:
- Operating: Coal units that have been commissioned.
- Announced: Proposed plants that have been described in corporate or government plans but have not yet taken concrete steps such as applying for permits or acquiring land.
- Pre-permit: Plants that are seeking environmental and other regulatory approvals and pursuing other developmental steps such as securing land and water rights.
- Permitted: All necessary environmental and other regulatory approvals have been received, but the project has not yet begun construction.
- Construction. This refers to cases where all necessary approvals have been received, the project is financially commissioned, potential power purchase agreements have been signed, and the project has begun construction.
- Shelved projects are those where sufficient evidence is found to indicate that a project is no longer moving forward, but not enough to declare it definitively cancelled.
- Cancelled projects are those that have either been halted for several years, or for which an official cancellation announcement has been made.
- Retired since 2010: This refers to coal units that have been closed or switched to another fuel since 2010.
For further information on the tracker or other global coal transition landscape-related queries, please contact Oyku Senlen or Leo Roberts.
