Australia and coal, towards the closure of a huge power plant by 2035

The Loy Yang A coal plant in Australia will close earlier than expected.It is responsible for 3% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the nation.

• Australia announces the closure of a coal-fired power plant responsible for 3% of national emissions.
• This is Loy Yang A, in the state of Victoria, and its closure is scheduled by 2035.
• Within a year it is there second closure announced thanks to competition from renewables.

THE'Australia, one of the world's largest producers of per capita CO2 emissions from coal, has long been considered a laggard in climate policy.But now Coal power plants look set to close, if not fail, here too.The coal-fired power plant Loy Yang A, in the Australian state of Victoria, will close by 2035.To affirm it it was the company that owns the power plant, Agl Energy, which on the one hand it is the largest producer of electricity of Australia, but at the same time the biggest polluter:Loy Yang A emitted 16.6 million tons of greenhouse gases in the two-year period 2019-2020.Over the same period, Australia as a whole issued 513.4 million.This means that a power plant will be closed alone is responsible for 3 percent of the entire island.

Now Australia aims to reduce emissions by 43% by 2030

Initially its closure it was scheduled for 2048, then last February it was decided to bring forward its closure by three years.Following a change of management at AGL, the announced date is now 2035.At the beginning of this year, in fact, the Australian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes became the company's largest shareholder and immediately forced Agl to become greener.

Since his election in May, Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese has pledged to reduce by 43 percent 2005 greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, compared to the commitment of his predecessor, Scott Morrison, stuck at 26-28 percent.

We need to stop with coal, immediately

But several scientists they still criticized the government because it continues to support the industries of fossil fuels. Climate Council, one of the main NGOs dealing with climate change in Australia, says that Agl's decision is proof that coal is no longer commercially viable for the country.

For this reason, decisions such as that of exiting coal in 2035, instead of leaving immediately, it is not acceptable.There are more than 10 years left until 2035 and the effects of phase out they will be perceptible even later, while the climate urgency is now.

Only renewables can shut down more coal plants

The good news, however, is that the Loy Yang A case is not the only one:in February the largest coal-fired power station in Australia – Eraring north of Sydney – he announced which will close seven years ahead of schedule, that is, in 2025, and will be replaced by a renewable energy storage facility.

Its operator, Origin Energy, admitted to no longer be able to compete with the influx of electricity produced by renewable sources.Thanks to the upgrading of the latter, coal-fired power plants will be abandoned, becoming increasingly unsustainable from an economic point of view and forcing operators in the sector to bring forward their closure date.