07 December 2021
Europe Beyond Coal campaign director Kathrin Gutmann receives Climate Breakthrough Award
Europe Beyond Coal’s campaign director, Kathrin Gutmann, is one of only three people globally to have been selected to receive this year’s US$3 million Climate Breakthrough Award from the Climate Breakthrough Project. The Europe Beyond Coal campaign has helped bring about Paris Climate Agreement-compatible retirements of over half of Europe’s coal plants since it began in 2017.
“This award is testament to the relentless determination of all those involved in the Europe Beyond Coal campaign to see a renewables-based European energy system built around the best interests of people, nature and climate rise from the ashes of the fossil fuel era,” said Kathrin Gutmann campaign director at Europe Beyond Coal. “We are well on track for a coal-free Europe by 2030, but this is only part of the story. A fully renewables-based power sector by 2035 built upon wind and solar, and free of fossil gas, is the next step on the path to a carbon neutral and pollution free Europe. I am grateful to the Climate Breakthrough Project for this award. It will surely help us reach this goal.”
ENDS
Notes
- More details on the award and this year’s three awardees in Climate Breakthrough Project’s press release.
- This year Europe’s coal industry entered its endgame. Twenty one European countries now have coal phase out plans, four of which are already coal free, and twelve are committed to being coal-free by 2030. Germany’s government-in-waiting has announced it will abandon the country’s 2038 coal exit plan and target a 2030 coal exit, while coal was referenced in a UN COP agreement for the first time at Glasgow COP26. The Turkish government also got in on the act, announcing it would ratify the Paris Climate Agreement following the cancelation of 65 percent of Turkey’s new coal pipeline since the turn of the year. Overview Of National Coal Phase Out Commitments
Contacts:
Alastair Clewer, Communications Officer, Europe Beyond Coal
alastair@beyond-coal.eu, +49 176 433 07 185
Kathrin Gutmann, Campaign Director, Europe Beyond Coal,
kathrin@beyond-coal.eu, +49 1577 8363 036