COP28: UAE, Malta join call for coal phase-out

The UAE, the third-biggest oil producer in OPEC, and Malta joined 56 other countries in calling for the end of unabated coal power generation in favor of clean energy.

The UAE and Malta took the position of "phase-out date: coal free" in joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA) on Dec. 5, according to the group's website. The UAE is the first Middle East government to join the group. Other positions include "phase-out date: after 2025" taken by countries including the US, Singapore and Kosovo and "phase-out date: before 2025" taken by the UK, Portugal and Hungary.

The UAE stopped using coal in power generation in 2022. Only two days ago, the UAE's energy minister asked why coal is still being used while oil and natural gas resources are still needed to prevent a spike in prices.

"Let's fight one enemy which is the emissions," Suhail Mazrouei told an Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week session Dec. 4 at the UN Climate Change conference in Dubai.

"If we can capture CO2 from any source and we remove it that source becomes clean. Today 36% of the electricity comes from coal. Why are we still using coal, and we know it's destroying the environment, and replace it with others that are at least 1/3 in terms of the emission intensity."

Every barrel of oil needs to be produced "responsibly and with the least carbon emissions," he said. The UAE pumped 2.93 million b/d in October, behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq in top OPEC producers, according to the latest Platts survey by S&P Global Commodity Insights.

On Dec. 2 at COP28, seven other countries including the US and the Czech Republic joined the anti-coal group, committing not to develop new unabated coal as well as phase out existing unabated coal plants.

The announcements add to pressure on COP28 negotiators to come up with a formal agreement on no new coal and coal phase-out.

The coalition does not include China or India, the world's biggest consumers of coal. The US joining the alliance, as the world's third largest consumer of coal, was a major win for the PPCA.

Coal power is the single biggest contributor to climate change, with major economies emitting 7.8 billion mtCO2e in 2020 from this single source.