Green deal

Recently some candidates for president have proposed spending large amounts of money to stop or curtail climate change but they may be fighting a losing battle. While the United States has been closing down old coal fired power plants and using natural gas for any new plants the rest of the world has been going in the other direction. Since 2010 the US has reduced electric power from coal by 30% and CO2 emissions to 1996 levels. The movement away from coal will continue because of economics. The rest of the world is quite different. Over all, 1,600 coal plants are planned or under construction in 62 countries, according to Urgewald’s tally, which uses data from the portal. The new plants would expand the world’s coal-fired power capacity by 43 percent. By contrast there are 86 coal plants in the US and they are being shut down or replaced by natural gas.