A/HRC/43/53 Georgia, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Malawi, the Marshall Islands, Mexico, Morocco, the Philippines, South Sudan and Uganda. Seven States – Cuba, El Salvador, Indonesia, Nepal, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Yemen and Zimbabwe – identified human rights as a key element of the legal context in which actions would be taken. Nationally determined contributions from more than 50 States address gender issues, participation and the empowerment of women, while those from 19 other States include references to indigenous peoples and/or traditional knowledge. 25 58. France enacted a law in 2017 banning new fossil fuel exploration and development and requiring existing projects to be concluded by 2040 (including those in French territories overseas). An earlier law prohibiting the exploitation of shale gas by hydraulic fracturing was challenged by industry but upheld by the Constitutional Council. 59. Costa Rica (by Executive Decree No. 41578) and Belize (by the Petroleum Operations (Maritime Zone Moratorium) Act, 2017) were the first States to prohibit all offshore oil and gas exploration and development, demonstrating climate leadership and protecting marine ecosystems. Denmark and New Zealand have also established limits on exploration for oil and gas.26 60. In a special report Global Warming of 1.5oC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that a safe climate requires a two-thirds reduction in coal power generation in 2030 and its near total elimination by 2050.27 Canada and the United Kingdom created the Powering Past Coal Alliance in 2017 and have been joined by 28 States and 22 subnational Governments pledging to end the use of coal to generate electricity by 2030, or in some States to never use coal for electricity.28 In 2019, Finland enacted law No. 416/2019 that bans the use of coal for electricity generation and heating as of 1 May 2029. 61. Spain and Germany are phasing out the coal industry and have put in place just transition strategies for workers.29 62. Dramatic declines in the cost of renewable energy are accelerating the transition to clean energy. In many countries, wind and solar power now provide cheaper electricity than fossil fuels. Global solar electricity generating capacity has grown exponentially from one gigawatt in 2000 (one gigawatt equals one billion watts) to over 500 gigawatts in 2019. Thanks to supportive public policies, the top five solar electricity producing countries in the world are now China, the United States, Japan, Germany and India. 63. The global total of wind electricity generating capacity grew from 17 gigawatts in 2000 to over 600 gigawatts in 2019. The top five countries in the world in generating electricity from wind, again thanks to effective public policies, are China, the United States, Germany, India and Spain. 64. The steep decline in the cost of wind and solar power means that rapidly shifting to 100 per cent renewable electricity is environmentally responsible and economically attractive. Albania, Costa Rica, Iceland, Namibia, Norway, Paraguay and Uruguay already secure between 98 and 100 per cent of their electricity from renewables including hydroelectric, solar, wind, geothermal and biomass. Belize, Bhutan, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kyrgyzstan, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mozambique, Nepal, Tajikistan and Zambia are above 90 per cent. 65. Distributed renewable energy programmes (where electricity is produced at or near the point where it is used) offer an excellent way to extend reliable access to clean and affordable electricity, and have been established in many low- and middle-income countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. For example, at least 20 million people in remote villages 25 26 27 28 29 Sébastian Duyck et al., “Human rights and the Paris Agreement’s Implementation Guidelines: opportunities to develop a rights-based approach”, Carbon and Climate Law Review, vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 191–202. The Production Gap, 2019 Report, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). www.ipcc.ch/sr15/. See https://poweringpastcoal.org. See UNEP, The Production Gap. 11