Facts

In Britain, we consume 62 million tonnes of coal per year, extracting 20 million tonnes in the UK, from 35 opencast and 7 deep coal minesi. We import the remaining 42 million tonnesii, that is 70% of our demand. (largely from Russia, Colombia and South Africaiii).

We burn approximately 80% of the coal in 19 coal-fired power stationsiv, generating 39%v of our electricity and emitting 26% of our carbon dioxide emissionsvi.

Subsidies

With the Government publicly committed to “secure the long-term future of coal-fired power generation and UK coal production”vii and “maximise economic recovery… from remaining coal reserves“viii, they have given the coal mining industry, over £220m to develop new mines or keep existing mines openix.

In comparison, the Low Carbon Buildings Programme - the Government’s scheme to promote microgeneration - currently grants £18m annually to the UK’s 25 million householdsx - an enormous 72p per household.

New Mines

The industry has responded to the Government’s financial and political support, with over 40 proposed open cast mines at various stages of development, detailed by this sitexi.

New Power Stations

UK power companies are planning £20 billion of new coal-fired power stations before 2020xii. Assuming these 6 new stations produced baseload powerxiii, they would produce approximately 59 million tonnes of carbon dioxide or 11% of our current emissions, that amount alone would wipe out 50% of our carbon budget in 2050 (if we cut emissions by 80%xiv). The average lifetime of a coal-fired power station is 40-50 yearsxv.

Coal and Climate Change

Coal is responsible for 40% of global carbon dioxide emissionsxvi and is the single biggest contributor to man-made CO2 emissions; responsible for 50% of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels in the atmospherexvii.

In the UK, coal-fired power stations are the largest and fastest growing source of greenhouse gases in the power generation sector, rising by over 29% between 1999 and 2006xviii.

Depending on its quality coal produces between 2.7-2.9 times its weight in CO₂xix. Which means that every tonne of coal burnt creates 2.7-2.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Coal is by far the most carbon intensive fuel used to generate electricity, producing twice as much carbon dioxide as gas power stations and over 200 times more than wind energyxx.

In a recent letter to the Prime Minister, James Hansen head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at NASA wrote:

“We know that enough oil and gas remain to take global warming close to, if not into the realm of dangerous climate effects. Coal and unconventional fossil fuels… contain enough carbon to produce a vastly different planet, a more dangerous and desolate planet, from the one civilization developed”.

His answer?

No new coal without Carbon Capture and Storage, and all existing coal plants to be retrofitted within 20 yearsxxi.

References

[i] See http://www.berr.gov.uk/energy/sources/coal/index.html
[ii] 42 million tones, Ibid.
[iii] See http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file14151.pdf
[iv] See http://www.ukqaa.org.uk/PowerStation.html
[v] Figure for 2007, see http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file47146.xls
[vi] Figure for 2006, see http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/globatmos/download/xls/gatb05.xls
[vii] See http://www.berr.gov.uk/energy/sources/coal/forum/page37276.html
[viii] 2007 Energy White Paper, see http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file39387.pdf
[ix] Between 2000-6, see http://www.berr.gov.uk/energy/sources/coal/investment-aid/index.html
[x] See http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1162
[xi] See http://www.leaveitintheground.org.uk
[xii] See http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file37293.pdf
[xiii] A power plant that is planned to run almost continually except for maintenance and scheduled or unscheduled outages.
[xiv] 1990 emissions were 592MTC0₂ (see Ref. 6), and 80% cut from that baseline would mean a carbon budget of 118MTC0₂, the emissions for the new proposed coal-fired power stations would be approximately 59MT (See: http://www.ippr.org/publicationsandreports/publication.asp?id=617), which translates as 50% of the nation’s carbon budget.
[xv] See http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/20071219_DearPrimeMinister.pdf
[xvi] See http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/emis/tre_glob.html
[xvii] See http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/20071219_DearPrimeMinister.pdf
[xviii] See http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/globatmos/download/xls/gatb05.xls
[xix] See http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/quarterly/co2_article/co2.html
[xx] Per kWh coal emits >1000g of CO2 compared with offshore wind at 5.25g, see “Carbon Footprint of Electricity Generation” Postnote (2006), Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, Her Majesty’s Government.
[xxi] See http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/20071219_DearPrimeMinister.pdf