Since signing the Paris Agreement in 2015 [...] several countries have made national plans to phase out coal... The Powering Past Coal alliance brings together many of these countries and others that will commit to phasing out coal [and] sharing technology to reduce emissions... Coal is responsible for more than 40 per cent of global emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide... The alliance, which is not legally binding, aims to have at least 50 members by the next U.N. climate summit in 2018 to be held in Poland’s Katowice, one of Europe’s most polluted cities... But some of the world’s biggest coal users, such as China, India, the United States, Germany and Russia, have not joined. The pace of Germany’s exit from coal power has dominated talks in Berlin this week on forming a new German government. The Powering Past Coal launch comes just days after U.S. administration officials, along with energy company representatives, led a side event at the talks to promote “fossil fuels and nuclear power in climate mitigation.”