Coal power is dirty

Why is coal doing so much environmental damage?

Simple: it is the most carbon-rich of all fossil fuels. Burning coal generates 70% more carbon dioxide (CO₂) than natural gas for every unit of energy produced.

Coal is the sedimentary organic rock formed from vegetation that lived millions of years ago.

Anthracite coal is nearly pure carbon

The most mature coal variety, anthracite - hard, black and lustrous - is nearly pure carbon, and has historically been regarded as useful to humans because of its high energy content. But dirty brown coal, or lignite, produces most CO₂ per unit of energy.

Above all, more than a third of all global electricity is generated from coal - it is the power sector's single biggest source of energy.

China, the United States and India are the top 3 producers in the world. Poland, South Africa, Australia, China and India all rely on it to produce over 75% of their electricity.

Half of global mercury emissions come from coal-fired power plants in the Asia-Pacific region, where acid rain costs some $90 billion every year.

It is these facts that makes the use of coal in electricity generation so significant. That is why the power sector was the focus of the recent WWF PowerSwitch! campaign.

The power sector produces 37% of man-made C0₂

Electricity is vital for human development and well-being. Yet by relying so heavily on coal and other fossil fuels, like oil, the power industry creates 37% of all man-made CO₂ emissions, according to the International Energy Agency.

But weaning humanity off coal will not be easy

Coal is also the world's most widely available fossil fuel: recoverable reserves of coal exist in about 70 countries, according to the World Coal Institute, an industry lobby group. The largest are in the United States, Russia and China.

The original 'black gold' which powered the Industrial Revolution, it is perceived as having a glorious past. Its future may be highly debatable, but it is plentiful and superficially seductive.

People still risk death to bring coal out of the ground.

Coal is abundant: at current rates of consumption, there are at least two centuries' worth of coal left.

Coal-use is falling in Western Europe but rising in Asia and the United States, while Australia is the world's biggest exporter. And there are also still an estimated 2 billion people with no access to domestic electricity.

The danger of a huge increase in CO₂ emission

This creates the danger of a huge increase in CO₂ emission, and disaster for the climate, unless the power generation industry turns away from coal as it attempts to meet this demand.

From 1971 to 1995 there was an eightfold increase in coal burning for electricity generation in the industrializing countries of Asia. If the trend continues, India and China will be responsible for 75% of the increased global coal consumption.

By 2025, nearly 60% of all coal will be burned in Asia-Pacific. As a consequence, the region’s CO₂ emissions are predicted to double.

In terms of global warming, that is a horrific prospect, but there is, as yet, nothing in place to stop it.