Even a climate crisis can't stop the world's appetite for burning coal
CBC
Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This story is part of a CBC News initiative entitled Our Changing Planet to show and explain the effects of climate change and what is being done about it.
One of the goals of the COP26 UN climate summit currently underway in Scotland is to take definitive action toward the burning of coal around the world to produce electricity.
The phrase "consign coal to history" is heard often, coined by Alok Sharma, president of COP26, the annual meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) that's supposed to decide climate action under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The aspiration seems logical; for decades it's been obvious that coal is a source of significant pollution.
Slowing down the burning of coal should be low-hanging fruit for world leaders, but if the 2021 climate summit wants to seal the fate of coal-fired power plants, recent months have provided a reality check of how difficult the task will be. The world's appetite for burning the black nuggets is not abating.
This year, recovering economic activity is expected to push global coal demand up 4.5 per cent, a growth rate which is higher than 2019 levels before the pandemic.
The Australian government, for one, has said the country would keep producing and exporting coal "well beyond 2030."
While Canada is phasing out coal-fired power, burning coal remains the world's favoured option to produce electricity. That increasing demand is why almost every lump of coal that U.S. miners will dig out of the ground next year has already been sold.
Coal prices are also through the roof, hitting record levels in many parts of the world this year.
Ernie Thrasher, CEO of U.S.-based XCoal Energy and Resources said he "would have never envisioned," the commodity price spike, during an interview with energy consultancy IHS Markit last month.
Thrasher said a rapid energy transition is "an aspiration and a goal that we should have," but the current situation illustrates how "a dose of logic and reality is needed."
The story of coal, of course, is a story of China.
It's responsible for about two-thirds of the world's consumption — and is the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter. Having low-cost, abundant, and reliable electricity is essential for its economy which is heavily reliant on manufacturing and other industrial activity.
"We haven't seen the end of it. It continues," said Edward Cunningham, director of the Harvard Kennedy School Asia Energy and Sustainability Initiative, about China's growing number of coal-fired power plants.
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