Despite well-meaning pledges to the contrary from a wide array of countries, banks, and other institutions, new coal plants are still getting financed, putting global climate targets further out of reach. I talk with Ted Nace of Global Energy Monitor and Paddy McCully of Reclaim Finance about the channels through which coal funding is passing -- and how to close them.
As long as the plants are legal, and make money, there will be investment. All you can do is raise the price. Heck, drugs are *ILLEGAL* and you can't stop money reaching their providers: all that even cops can do is raise the price.
The gorilla in the room continues to be how much fossil energy (for things like smelting of metals, metal mining, manufacturing of cement, construction and wiring/ of transmission towers for a new grid, etc.) is going to be needed in the transition to get us to the clean energy sources. The usual comment I hear is "well, it's just a drop in the bucket", but perhaps those commenters have not been inside a steel or aluminum plant, or seen a gas-fired kiln making cement from limestone and clay. OR - perhaps they don't know about the huge chunk of underground steel reinforced concrete base that each wind generator sits on top of, or the amount of both concrete and metal needed to construct a large "solar farm". Perhaps it is a "drop in the bucket" - and I am definitely NOT NOT NOT arguing against the transition - which is obviously needed. But if is just a drop, it is still a pretty big "drop" that is needed for us to get where we need to be, and a "drop" that we can't ignore.
As long as the plants are legal, and make money, there will be investment. All you can do is raise the price. Heck, drugs are *ILLEGAL* and you can't stop money reaching their providers: all that even cops can do is raise the price.
The gorilla in the room continues to be how much fossil energy (for things like smelting of metals, metal mining, manufacturing of cement, construction and wiring/ of transmission towers for a new grid, etc.) is going to be needed in the transition to get us to the clean energy sources. The usual comment I hear is "well, it's just a drop in the bucket", but perhaps those commenters have not been inside a steel or aluminum plant, or seen a gas-fired kiln making cement from limestone and clay. OR - perhaps they don't know about the huge chunk of underground steel reinforced concrete base that each wind generator sits on top of, or the amount of both concrete and metal needed to construct a large "solar farm". Perhaps it is a "drop in the bucket" - and I am definitely NOT NOT NOT arguing against the transition - which is obviously needed. But if is just a drop, it is still a pretty big "drop" that is needed for us to get where we need to be, and a "drop" that we can't ignore.
https://youtu.be/Q2o5P-6zm6Y