Bonn: The villain of this year's UN climate talks hasn't been Donald Trump, as many expected, instead coal took centre stage.
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| A replica of the Statue of Liberty by Danish artist Jens Galschiot emits smoke in a park outside the 23rd UN Conference of the Parties (COP) in Bonn, Germany, on Friday. |
The fortnight-long conference in Bonn was expected to be dominated by the US President's withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, but talks focused instead on weaning the world's dependence on coal.
The conference culminated in 20 countries - including New Zealand, the UK and Canada - creating a new Powering Past Coal alliance, which promises to build no more coal power plants and phase out traditional ones by 2030.
They hope to have 50 members by next year's COP, to be held in December in coal-hungry Poland.
Read the story from Bonn by Katina Curtis in today’s Melbourne Age - “Coal trumps Trump as climate talks villain.”
