Mission:  To track and count down the world’s remaining coal plant units as decision makers across governments and the private sector work together to accelerate the transition to a clean energy future.

Background: The Bloomberg Global Coal Countdown, led by Bloomberg Philanthropies in partnership with the Powering Past Coal Alliance, utilizes data from research organizations to serve as an online resource that tracks the world’s progress toward phasing out coal-fired power plants. To that end, the online tool aggregates data from organizations including the Global Energy Monitor, the Center for Global Sustainability at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, Ember, and E3G to provide free and transparent information on the status of coal plants around the world in the hopes that decision makers across governments and the private sector will work together to accelerate the transition to a clean energy future.

Outstanding Web Features: Visitors to the site can take note of the global number of operating coal plants and by clicking on the Coal Plant Status map to view all existing coal plants of 30 MW or larger, as well as every plant proposed, by their operational status since January 1, 2010. In addition, the Phase-Out Status map shows the phase-out commitments of individual countries as of July 2021, and the No New Coal Status map shows the no new coal commitments of respective countries as of July 2021. The site has enabled a feature by which visitors can view the top ten countries by the ranking of their coal plant capacity status, which includes the numbers of operational, under construction, planned, halted, canceled, or retired plants. A general global snapshot is also available. Visitors can also see metrics about global emissions reduction scenarios over time from 2010 through to 2050 and the global region’s more recent capacity changes from 2017 through 2021, or search for specific information about an individual country or region and obtain more in-depth information about that region’s coal capacity landscape, coal power generation, and reported news. For further information, visitors can read featured analyses in the form of policy briefs or other articles via the site’s research and analysis page.

(Photo credit: Markus Distelrath via Pexels)