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

The report warns that 'unabated' coal phase-down strategies—including co-firing, retrofitting with CCS, and using carbon credits—risk extending the life of fossil fuel infrastructure and providing incomplete emission reductions. It urges public development banks to avoid these 'false solutions' to ensure public funds support rapid coal retirement rather than prolonging coal usage.

• Co-firing and retrofitting coal plants can create perverse incentives to keep infrastructure online longer to recover investment and retrofitting costs, and should not be used to justify extending the life of fossil fuel plants.
• Plant conversion to biomass, synthetic fuels, and the use of CCS/CCUS are viewed as incomplete solutions; synthetic fuels specifically face commercial viability and scaling challenges, while CCS often ignores pre-combustion emissions.
• Using carbon credits to fund emission cuts from coal generation without robust safeguards may delay emission reductions in other sectors and create misaligned incentives.

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} }