Coal: A Hidden Risk for Your Business

While November’s COP 27 meeting in Egypt stressed the urgency for a "phase down" of coal, the world's most dominant source of energy, as a critical step to ensuring a clean energy future, countries around the globe are building 187 new coal-fired power plants, increasing total capacity by 178GW or almost 10 percent. Coal is considered the dirtiest source of energy not only because it is the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel, but also because burning coal releases a number of airborne toxins and pollutants, such as particulates and various heavy metals that affect our health. Companies have a vital role to play in phasing out coal-fired energy production to meet targets in the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions and limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.