100Gt of emissions every decade. Coal is also quite polluting and no one wants to live near a coal energy plant.
Those 8500 plants actually move the needle and accelerate climate change by a significant amount.
The obvious solution is not having so much demand, but we all want to have that cake and eat it.
How about some better answers?
It appears we’ve completely missed the initial goals and will experience a larger temperature increase.
100 million barrels of oil a day. Fossil fuels producing 84% of our energy needs.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2020/06/20/bp-review-ne...
With modern filters and high enough smokestacks, the effect on air quality doesn't seem to be that bad. In my region, every city has its own coal plant (mostly used to provide heat for the city in the winter) and I don't notice the effects on air quality. It's definitely a small fraction of the pollution brought by people burning coal at home (in old boilers, obviously without any filters and with low chimneys).