Caution on co-firing, retrofitting and carbon credits for retirement

A report by NewClimate Institute and the Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE) warning public development banks against funding abatement technologies and carbon credits for coal plants, arguing these may create perverse incentives that delay the phase-out of fossil fuel infrastructure.

• The use of abatement technologies, such as co-firing with biomass, hydrogen, or ammonia, and retrofitting with carbon capture and storage (CCS/CCUS), may undermine coal phase-out efforts. Specifically, retrofitting for co-firing could incentivize keeping plants operational longer to recover investment costs, and these technologies often provide incomplete emission reductions.
• Plant conversion to biomass is characterized as a 'false solution' that does not eliminate the risk of stranding or the need for early retirement. Similarly, synthetic fuels are not currently commercially viable at the scale required by national planning and depend on the future availability of cost-competitive green fuels.
• Public development banks face a high risk of misallocating scarce funds due to a lack of consensus on the definition of transition finance and technical criteria. Furthermore, using carbon credits to fund emission cuts from coal without robust safeguards can delay emission reductions in other sectors.

APA

NewClimate Institute (2024). Caution on co-firing, retrofitting and carbon credits for retirement. https://newclimate.org/resources/publications/caution-on-co-firing-retrofitting-and-carbon-credits-for-retirement

Chicago

NewClimate Institute. Caution on co-firing, retrofitting and carbon credits for retirement. 2024. https://newclimate.org/resources/publications/caution-on-co-firing-retrofitting-and-carbon-credits-for-retirement.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=NewClimate Institute |title=Caution on co-firing, retrofitting and carbon credits for retirement |date=7 March 2024 |url=https://newclimate.org/resources/publications/caution-on-co-firing-retrofitting-and-carbon-credits-for-retirement |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{newclimateinstitute2024caution, author = {{NewClimate Institute}}, title = {{Caution on co-firing, retrofitting and carbon credits for retirement}}, institution = {NewClimate Institute}, year = {2024}, month = mar, url = {https://newclimate.org/resources/publications/caution-on-co-firing-retrofitting-and-carbon-credits-for-retirement}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }