Peak coal: Plotting America's coal cutback

12/3/23 7:00PM

COP28

‍The 28th annual UN climate meeting, held this year in Dubai, is already fueling controversy, after the host country revealed plans to expand oil production and the president of the summit made comments throwing doubt on the role that fossil fuels play in limiting climate change.

But one substantial policy from the summit has been agreed: the US, along with 56 other nations, has formally committed to transitioning away from coal power, pledging no new coal plants and a phase-out of existing production.

Although nearly 20% of US electricity was still powered by coal in October, the amount of coal burned nationwide has more than halved since 2008 — “peak coal” (at least in terms of electricity consumption) in the US was roughly 15 years ago.

‍Changing hearts and mines

‍It’s been documented for some time that — in order to produce the same amount of energy — coal emits some 80% more carbon dioxide than natural gas, 35% more than gasoline, and substantially more than renewable sources... which is why many of the recent discussions focus on economics, rather than science.

The coal commitment will be welcomed by many, but the wider cost of a full global energy transition to net zero is hard to get your head around. Estimates vary, but they all use the same units: trillions of dollars. McKinsey’s latest guess? A final price tag of $275 trillion, or $35,000 for every man, woman, and child on the planet.

Tom Jones5h

The $640,000 Luce makes the average Ferrari look like a bargain

Put aside the shape; put aside the smoothing out of Ferrari’s iconic sharp edges; put aside, even, the calls from former Chairman and President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo to “take the Prancing Horse off.” On the grounds of price alone, Luce detractors might have a point.

By now, many of us will have read the criticisms of Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle, as the Luce — which was unveiled to the world earlier this week and promptly saw the company’s shares crash out in New York and Milan — gets subtly shaded by competitors online and not-so-subtly shaded by basically everyone else.

What makes all of this worse for Ferrari is that, even by the luxury car maker’s notoriously high standards, they’ve slapped a pretty hefty price tag on the Luce, and the company’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna, has already been forced to defend the €550,000 ($640,000) price point, saying yesterday that it’s “fair to pay for innovation,” per Reuters.

While Ferrari’s cars have been getting more expensive of late, as recently as 2022, Ferrari’s average revenue per car sold was around $340,000. At nearly twice that price, this new electric model is obviously proving a little much (visually, conceptually, and financially) for many loyal and long-standing fans of the Prancing Horse to stomach.