The majority of global coal companies are still making expansion plans, an environmental and human rights organization announced Sept. 19.
A database of companies that operate along the thermal coal value chain, titled the Global Coal Exit List, was released by Urgewald E.V. in partnership with 30 partner nongovernmental organizations. Of 746 companies on the Global Coal Exit List, 400 are still planning to expand their coal operations, according to a news release from the Germany-based nonprofit.
"Our 2019 data shows that the time for patient engagement with the coal industry has definitely run out," said Heffa Schuecking, director and founder of Urgewald. "It is high time for banks, insurers, pension funds and other investors to take their money out of the coal industry."
The Global Coal Exit List project launched in November 2017. Urgewald said investors representing close to US$10 trillion in assets are using the database's divestment criteria to screen coal companies out of their portfolios. The release came a day before the Global Climate Strike, an effort encouraging workers across the world on Sept. 20 to "walk out of our workplaces and homes to join young climate strikers on the streets and demand an end to the age of fossil fuels."
"From Poland to the Philippines and from Mozambique to Myanmar, local communities are challenging new coal projects in the courts and on the streets," Urgewald said in its release. "And on Sept. 20, millions of climate strikers from around the world are calling for an end to coal and other fossil fuels."
The list includes companies that generate over 30% of their revenues or power from coal and all companies planning to expand coal mining, coal power or coal infrastructure. The companies listed in the database represent 89% of the world's thermal coal production and almost 87% of the world's installed coal-fired capacity.
While the coal plant pipeline shrank by over 50% in the past three years, the organization wrote, new coal plants are planned or under development in 60 countries. That would expand the existing coal fleet by about 579 GW, or about 29%, the release said.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates recently shared skepticism about the effectiveness of coal divestment policies. Still, coal companies have warned investors that certain services such as financing or insurance, which are critical to expansion, could be more difficult to obtain due to exclusionary policies blocking coal projects. Vic Svec, a spokesperson for coal giant Peabody Energy Corp., warned in an August email that campaigns to divest or exclude coal could hurt companies that want to mine more responsibly and promote advanced technologies to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants.
"If you drive first-tier, sustainable companies from coal, then the resulting effects will be negative for multiple stakeholder groups and society as a whole," Svec said.
