...AND CHEAPER...:

1. It is already cheaper to build new renewables than to build new coal plants, in all major markets.

Just two years ago, in 2018, Carbon Tracker did a similar analysis and concluded that new renewable energy would undercut new coal in all major markets by 2025. "Using updated data from publicly available sources," it concludes in this year's report, "we now believe these conclusions are too conservative."

In fact, they say, new renewables are cheaper than new coal plants in all major markets ... today.

2. Over half the existing global coal fleet is more expensive to run than building new renewables.

The second threshold, Carbon Tracker finds, has been crossed by about 60 percent of the global coal fleet, which now has a higher LMRC than the LCOE of new renewable energy.

"This trend is most pronounced in the EU, which has a strong carbon price and has benefited from years of investment in renewable energy," the report says. "The US, China, and India are not far behind the EU due to excellent renewable energy resources, low capital costs, and least-cost policymaking."

In markets where this threshold has not been crossed, like Turkey and Japan, the blame generally falls on unsupportive policy and unreliable markets.

3. By 2030, it will be cheaper to build new renewables than to run existing coal -- everywhere.

This is the real mind-blower: even in laggard markets, Carbon Tracker projects that coal power will cross the second threshold by 2030 at the latest.

In other words, within ten years, virtually every coal plant in the world will be uneconomic, producing power more expensive than what could be generated by new renewables. 

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