In its current form, the Just Transition Fund (JTF) risks mainly supporting Member States whose strategy for phasing out coal is “not Paris-compatible”, according to a report by the think tank Ember, produced with the NGO CAN Europe (Climate Action Network Europe) and published on Wednesday 9 September.
The report examines the National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) of the 18 Member States that still use coal for electricity generation, and states that 11 of the coal-producing countries do not have a plan to fully replace coal with “clean electricity ” by 2030 without increasing the use of other fossil fuels such as gas.
According to the document, seven countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Romania and Slovenia) plan to retain coal beyond 2030 and four countries (Greece, Hungary, Ireland and Italy) intend to phase out coal by 2030, but will replace it with fossil gas.
The other seven countries (Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain) are on track to phase out coal by 2030 without a significant increase in fossil gas.
However, the analysis carried out by Ember and CAN Europe shows that, without reform, nearly two-thirds of the Just Transition Fund will go to the seven countries that do not plan to phase out coal by 2030 and more than 10% of the Fund will go to the group of four countries.
The two organisations are therefore concerned that the JTF will reward “climate laggards at the expense of countries with ambitious, Paris-compatible plans”. The report can be found at: https://bit.ly/3jYi8aX (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)