Summits, especially by world leaders, whether done virtually or physically, bring out the best intentions and highlight the worst scenarios besetting countries. With good intentions come commitments and pledges, but after that what?
Most commitments like those in Paris and Tokyo have all but vanished in thin air, so what makes COP26 (or the UN Climate Change Conference of Parties in Glasgow, Scotland) any different from previous ones.
The difference now is that climate change has made its presence felt heavily even in rich countries, or those with massive funds to invest in futuristic structures and technologies, that do not seem to mitigate the damage wrought by severe weather, wildfires and huge flooding and more frequent tremors.
These very same rich countries which have previously given nothing but motherhood statements are being reminded by nature about their exploitative lifestyles and technologies and their apathy towards the plight of their poorer neighbors in this same planet that harm not just the ecosystem but the natural flow of things.
Now they are concerned that things might turn from bad to worse if they do nothing about climate change and global warming.
Transitioning from coal
As to be expected, poor countries in Asia and Africa are the first to be given multi-billion dollar to pilot a shift from coal power to clean energy—one of the commitments in COP26. As if these poor countries are being blamed for using coal (a cheap energy source produced by rich countries and sold to them at global market rates) and being the polluters of the environment.
These coal suppliers of the world are the ones that financed the coal power plants in these countries so that they would have a ready market for their mined coal. In COP26, it was pointed out that these four countries—India, Indonesia, the Philippines and South Africa who will be the first beneficiaries of the Climate Investment Fund—account for 15 percent of global emissions related to coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, Reuters reported.
Cutting their emissions more quickly will help the global effort for net zero carbon emissions by 2050, a key goal of the ongoing United Nations COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.
Indonesian Energy Minister Arifin Tasrif said his country was committed to reducing and replacing its coal power plants with renewables in energy transition.
"Climate change is a global challenge that needs to be addressed by all parties through leading by example," his statement read.
The CIF said the Accelerating Coal Transition (ACT) program was the first to target developing countries that lack adequate resources to finance the shift away from coal, a move considered vital to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030.
The new program has been endorsed by the Group of Seven advanced economies and is supported by financial pledges from the United States, Britain, Germany, Canada, and Denmark, the CIF said.
Denmark is donating 100 million Danish crowns ($15.5 million) to the program's "efforts to purchase and decommission coal power plants and invest in new energy sources."
"We must have sustainable plans for decommissioning coal power plants. For example, we need to ensure alternative employment for the local population, including retraining programs," said Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod.
Uncompetitive coal plants
Coal combustion, the biggest single source of global temperature increase, faces competitive challenges from renewable energy sources, with the number of uncompetitive coal plants expected to grow by over two-thirds globally by 2025.
"Coal is a high-emitting power source at odds with a climate-smart future," said Mafalda Duarte, chief executive of the CIF, which was created by the world's biggest economies in 2008 to help poorer countries accelerate their shift to a low-carbon economy.
"Markets are starting to trend in the right direction, but the transition is not happening fast enough to respond to the urgency of the climate crisis," Duarte said.
It will invest in projects ranging from bolstering countries' domestic capacity to manage energy transitions to repurposing or decommissioning coal assets and creating economic opportunities for coal-dependent communities.
The project will work with six multilateral development banks to offer coal-transitioning countries a comprehensive financial toolkit that includes low-income loans and technical assistance.
Biggest coal producers
China at 4,631 TWh (ta terawatt-hour or 1 trillion Wh)in 2020 making up 61 percent of its total electricity output. It leads the way among the world's top coal-producing countries by far, but several other regions account for significant output of this much-used resource. Although the nation has increased its climate efforts as it aims to reach carbon neutrality before 2060, it has come under fire for continuing to expand its already sizeable coal fleet. China added 38.4 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-fired power capacity in 2020 – more than three times the amount built elsewhere around the world.
It is home to several of the biggest coal-fired power plants, including the 6.7-GW Datang Tuoketuo power station in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region – the largest facility of its type on the planet.
China also boasts some of the world’s biggest coal mines. The Inner Mongolia-based Haerwusu and Hei Dai coal mines are estimated to contain combined recoverable coal reserves of more than 3.2 billion tons.
2. India at 947 TWh is the second-largest coal generating country, with an electricity production of 947 TWh from the fuel in 2020. Despite its recent push to increase its renewable energy capacity, the country continues to generate more than 70 percent of its total electricity from coal.
But the nation’s coal-fired electricity generation fell by 5 percent in 2020 due to significantly reduced annual electricity demand as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown. Some of the major coal power plants in India include the 4.7-GW Vindhyachal Thermal Power Station, the 4.6-GW Mundra Thermal Power Station and the 4-GW Mundra Ultra Mega Power Plant.
3. US at774 TWh continues to generate a significant amount of its electricity from coal. In 2020, the North American country produced 774 TWh of electricity from coal-fired power plants.
Although that figure still ranks the US as the third-largest coal-generating nation, the fuel now only contributes to 19 percent of its total electricity production – a huge decline from just seven years ago when it made up 39 percent of the mix.
Data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that between 2010 and the first quarter of 2019, US power firms announced the retirement of more than 546 coal-fired power units – representing about 102GW of generating capacity and roughly a third of the coal fleet that was operating in 2010.
Some of the country’s largest coal plants include the 3.6-GW Scherer Power Plant, the 3.5-GW Plant Bowen, and the 3.3-GW Monroe Power Plant.
The US is also home to North Antelope Rochelle, the world’s biggest coal mine. The site has about 1.9 billion tons of proven and probable reserves.
4. Japan at 274 TWh production in 2020 makes it fourth in the list of the largest coal-fired power generating countries.
Until the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, the nation had traditionally depended on nuclear power generation, as it does not have abundant quantities of domestic reserves of crude oil and natural gas.
Despite an increased appetite to scale up its share of renewables, Japan currently relies heavily on coal-fired power, with the fuel accounting for 29 percent of its energy mix.
Major coal power plants in the country include the 4.1-GW Hekinan coal power plant, the 1.8-GW Maizuru power station, and the 1.6-GW Tomatoh-Atsuma power station.
5. South Korea is fifth largest coal-fired power generating nation at192 TWh of electricity in 2020.
On announcing the country’s net-zero emissions pledge for 2050 in October 2020, President Moon Jae-in said the nation would bring an end to its coal dependency and replace it with renewables as part of its Green New Deal that was announced in July 2020.
But it will not be an easy task for South Korea – the world’s seventh-highest polluter – as coal currently provides 36 percent of its power mix.
The 6.1-GW Taean power station, which is the second-largest coal power plant in the world, is based in Chungcheongnam-do. The Taean power station supplies electricity primarily to the South Korean capital, Seoul, and surrounding regions. The third-largest coal facility in the world, the 6-GW Dangjin Thermal Power Plant, is also located in Chungcheongnam-do.
The world’s largest coal-producing countries have delivered a resource to global markets that has powered industrialization, through thermal electricity generation and as an ingredient for manufacturing processes like steelmaking.
Coal is still world’s biggest electricity generation
While climate concerns and efforts to decarbonize the global energy system have diminished coal’s stature in recent years, it nevertheless remains the biggest source of the world’s electricity generation – accounting for 38 percent of the overall share in 2019, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Coal production has risen year-on-year since 2016, and global coal reserves have been measured at more than one trillion tons.
IEA data indicates total world coal production topped 7.9 billion tons in 2019 – its highest since 2014 – growing at an annual rate of 1.5 percent, which was half the rate of recent years. Thermal coal and lignite made up around 86 percent of this production, and the remainder was metallurgical coal.
Latest estimates for 2020 suggest a 6.5 percent annual decline in global output as a result of lower demand during the coronavirus pandemic, although a rebound to 7.6 million tons is expected in 2021.
Here, NS Energy profiles the top six coal-producing countries in the world, as of 2019.
My take
I can’t wait to see how true those promises at COP26 are and who among the world’s nations most affected by climate change and extreme weather will make good on their commitments.
I don’t think even the Philippines has the appetite to get away from coal as an energy source because it is cheap and readily available, compared to renewable energy which is just being tried on commercial scales abroad.
RE is the direction of the future. We have no choice if we want to continue living in this lonely planet of ours or become extinct with it, sooner than later.
As Queen Elizabeth said in her opening address to COP26, the world has passed the promising stage. We must act now.