Five G7 Nations Increased Their Coal Use Over a Five-Year Period, Research Shows

Exhaust rises from cooling towers at the new Neurath lignit coal-fired power station at Grevenbroich near Aachen, western Germany. Photograph: Patrik Stollarz/AFP/Getty Images

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - Let Them Eat Coal: Why the G7 must stop burning coal to tackle climate change and fight hunger

theguardian.com - by John Vidal - June 8, 2015

Five of the world’s seven richest countries have increased their coal use in the last five years despite demanding that poor countries slash their carbon emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change, new research shows.

Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan and France together burned 16% more coal in 2013 than 2009 and are planning to further increase construction of coal-fired power stations. Only the US and Canada of the G7 countries meeting on Monday in Berlin have reduced coal consumption since the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009.

The US has reduced its coal consumption by 8% largely because of fracking for shale gas.

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