phase down

See also: phasedown

English

Verb

phase down (third-person singular simple present phases down, present participle phasing down, simple past and past participle phased down)

1. (transitive) To gradually reduce the size or scale of.

   Coordinate terms: phase in, phase out, scale down, scale up

   • 2021 November 13, Alok Sharma, “Alok Sharma’s remarks at the COP26 Closing Plenary”, in 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference‎^[1], Government of the United Kingdom, archived from the original on 5 May 2023:

     We have also, for the first time, adopted text to scale up clean power and phase down dirty coal.

   • 2022 November 17, Adam Morton, “Getting rid of fossil fuels at a climate summit is harder than you’d think”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 October 2026:

     The most significant step in that direction came in last year’s Glasgow pact, which reached a pained consensus supporting a “phase down of unabated coal power”. It did not land on that language until the final moments, when China and India demanded “phase out” be watered down to “phase down”. It was an ambush that drove the exhausted Cop26 president, Alok Sharma, to tears.

Derived terms

• phasedown (noun)