Coal — The “dirty” fuel?

Abstract

The world depends upon coal for much of its energy, yet coal had developed a reputation for being “dirty” and polluting. The reputation seems undeserved; coal can be, and often is, burned cleanly. There are concerns about various emissions, particularly sulphur and nitrogen oxides and mercury, but the impact of these emissions seems overstated, so that statutory control levels are set to unnecessarily low levels. The global political desire to reduce the quantity of coal burned in order to lower the anthropogenic contribution of carbon dioxide does not conform to the plans of many developing nations to employ ever more coal to generate energy cheaply and from their own resources. While many OECD nations are actively reducing their coal use. developing nations, particularly at present those in SE Asia and probably in future much of Africa, will grow their coal consumption. This raises the question as to whether it is better to develop economically than to be a good global citizen and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Answering this question requires assessing the risks of future climate change. It is argued that changes thus far observed make the risks associated with climate change small, so that it is perfectly justifiable to build more coal-fired power stations.