The Sierra Club’s third annual survey of the coal plant pipeline, Boom and Bust 2017, finds a 62 percent drop in new coal plant construction starts globally, including an 85 percent decline in new Chinese coal plant permits. In addition to the decline in new plant development, the survey also found a record-breaking 64 gigawatts of coal plant retirements in the last two years, mainly in Europe and the United States – the equivalent of nearly 120 large coal-fired units. The MacArthur-supported Sierra Club conducts the survey each year in collaboration with Greenpeace and CoalSwarm.
