The world won’t tackle global warming if we deny the vital role of clean coal power

It is just a few weeks until heads of state assemble in Paris for the UN Conference on Climate Change. At the heart of the meeting’s ambition will be an attempt to secure an agreement, applicable to all countries, to keep global warming below the two degree Celsius target.

 

As the recent discussions in Bonn have illustrated, this will be a difficult task to achieve. But the reality is that it will be even harder, probably impossible, if the role of coal in the global energy mix is ignored.

 

Yesterday’s announcement from the UK government that it plans to phase out coal-fired power stations entirely is not the answer. Coal provides 41 per cent of the world’s electricity, powering the infrastructure that keeps the lights on in London and other major urban centres around the world.

 

Some 70 per cent of the world’s steel production is powered by coal, as is a staggering 90 per cent of world cement production. It is a critical enabler in the modern world and will be for decades to come. Those who deny this are ignoring some very basic facts.

 

It is interesting to read many of the submissions that governments around the world have made ahead of Paris. Far from consigning coal to history, they underline the growing importance that many leading economies have ascribed to coal.

 

Take China, which has said it will increase the share of concentrated and highly-efficient electricity generation from coal. It sits front and centre of the country’s energy policy, and will help power the Chinese economy in the coming years. India has also highlighted the continued importance coal will have to its economy. Coal “will continue to dominate power generation in the future”, it says, with the country unveiling ambitious plans to expand domestic coal mining operations.

 

And like China, India has realised that coal can play an important role in reaching its environmental targets. It has put increasing use of low emission coal technology at the heart of its development programme. The Indian government has also promised to renovate and modernise existing coal-fired power plants, ensuring that they are fit for purpose for decades to come. Equally, it has committed to increase use of supercritical and ultra-supercritical technologies. It is the deployment of such technologies that will transform the way coal is used and the resulting environmental impact. 

 

A low emission technology pathway for coal begins with deployment of high efficiency, low emission power plants using technology that is readily available today. These plants are also the first step on the path towards carbon capture and storage (CCS),which is critical to achieving global climate objectives.

 

The opportunities that CCS offers are best illustrated by the impact the world’s first large-scale project has had, SaskPower’s Boundary Dam power plant in Canada. This coal-fired CCS project is an example of what can be achieved, capturing 90 per cent of CO2, equivalent to taking 250,000 cars off the road each year.

 

It’s essential that the world quickens the deployment of high efficiency, low emission coal technologies, alongside the development of CCS. Raising the average efficiency of the global coal fleet from the current level of 33 per cent to 40 per cent, achievable with off-the-shelf technology, would save two gigatonnes of CO2 emissions. This is equivalent to running the Kyoto protocol three times over.

 

Recognising that many countries have included a role for high efficiency low emission coal-fired power generation in their Paris submissions, the coal industry is calling for an international mechanism to be established to provide the support necessary for countries to build high efficiency low emissions plants.

 

To this end, we have proposed the establishment of a Platform to Accelerate Coal Efficiency and stand ready to work with international partners to support implementation of this platform. And working in partnership is a necessity. We look forward to working with other carbon-intensive industries, like the oil and gas sector, to build a holistic response that will have a meaningful impact for generations to come. No single industry can effect such a change.

 

In short, coal has to be part of the solution if Paris is to be successful in its laudable aims and goals.