Can Coal Contribute to Sustainable Development?

Coal is not always seen as a route to sustainable development; renewable energy, energy efficiency and a move away from fossil fuels are what people usually have in mind. The paper argues that such a view is incomplete. One of the key development challenges facing the 21st century is to ensure wider access to clean energy. There are 1.6 billion people currently lacking electricity and the enormous benefits it brings in terms of poverty reduction and improved quality of life. Coal has been the route to electrification for millions in the developing world – China alone secured electricity access for over 700 million people between 1980 and 2000 in a system based 84 percent on coal. Clean technologies generally involve higher costs. Can the higher environmental expectations of the 21st century be met without denying or delaying access to electricity for millions in need? The paper identifies ways in which the cost penalty and other barriers to the introduction of clean coal-based technologies can be overcome. Higher efficiencies reduce both costs and emissions – the universal deployment of existing commercial best practice would produce savings equivalent to those from the Kyoto protocol. Emerging coal-based technologies enable cost-effective carbon dioxide emissions reductions. Co-firing of coal and renewables is often the most effective route to enabling resources such as biomass and solar power to be exploited. In the longer run, carbon sequestration offers huge potential for near zero emissions power at costs comparable with or lower than the alternatives. The conclusion is that no single fuel source provides the answer to sustainable development; a range of options is needed. Cleaner coal-based technologies must be one of those options: they can meet both immediate development goals and longer-term climate change imperatives.