Canada and UK form alliance to phase out coal to combat climate change

BONN, Germany — Canada and Britain have formed an alliance aimed at encouraging countries to phase out coal as part of efforts to curb climate change.
The initiative — dubbed the Global Alliance to Power Past Coal — was unveiled in Bonn, Germany today by Environment Minister Catherine McKenna and her U.K. counterpart, Minister of State for Climate Change and Industry, Claire Perry.
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 even as the U.S and other countries plan to expand the use of coal in the coming years.

Even Germany and Poland, hosts of climate talks this year and next, are holding onto coal for the foreseeable future.
Canada has committed to shutting down all of its coal-fired power plants by 2030. Ontario has already shut down all of its coal-fired plants, and Alberta has committed to doing the same by 2030, though the plan in that province is to mainly use another fossil fuel: natural gas.
Speaking in Manila on Tuesday at a summit of Southeast Asian countries, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called coal the “dirtiest of all fossil fuels” and that reducing its use is one of the greatest challenges to meeting climate change targets.