South Korea pledges to phase out coal plants

Seoul: South Korea pledged Monday to phase out coal power plants that lack emission reducing measures, an ambitious step for a country that generates...

Seoul: South Korea pledged Monday to phase out coal power plants that lack emission-reducing measures, an ambitious step for a country that generates a third of its electricity from the fossil fuel.

"We will kickstart our coal phase-out," said Seoul's Climate Minister Kim Sung-whan, announcing South Korea's decision to join the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA) of governments and organisations pushing to eliminate unabated coal as a power source.

The pledge will "help the Alliance advance the coal transition worldwide", added Kim, who is attending the United Nations' annual COP climate summit in Brazil.

Unabated refers to coal burned without any measures to reduce its emissions, such as carbon capture or storage.

The pledge does not give a date for an end to all South Korea's use of unabated coal, but represents the first official government commitment to stop building new unabated coal plants and to phase out existing ones.