courtesy  :  lea

coal emissions

Coal power plants have helped build economies around the world, but the greenhouse gas emissions produced by coal plants need to be reduced quickly to help put global emissions into decline and tackle a key contributor to climate change. Achieving this will demand innovative solutions, major financial resources and a big dose of political courage.

Many emerging and developing economies are experiencing rapid growth in demand for electricity. Renewable power sources like solar and wind are flourishing in many regions, but their growth isn’t yet quick enough to keep up with demand and storage technologies not yet commercial at scale, meaning coal is often called upon to fill the gap. Furthermore, in emerging and developing markets, many coal industry operations have high degrees of state ownership and are major employers, so authorities face challenging trade-offs between calls to cut emissions and the need to develop their economies and provide services for their citizens.

Today, there are around 8,500 coal power plants in operation worldwide. At more than 2,000 gigawatts of capacity they generate over a third of all electricity. Coal power plants produce a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions – more than any other single source. And while cutting emissions has become a key global priority, more than 300 new coal power plants are slated to come online in the coming five years. Those that do will add materially to emissions – unless action is taken.

Most of the world’s existing coal-fired power generation is in emerging and developing economies. For example, roughly 60 percent of the electricity generated in China, India and Indonesia is from coal. Similarly, almost 90 percent of the new coal power plants being developed worldwide are also in emerging and developing economies, mostly in Asia.  By contrast, coal consumption in advanced economies peaked in 2007, although it still makes up 20 percent of the electricity mix in these countries on average.