Coal industry calls for technology backing

The World Coal Association’s (WCA) International Coal & Climate Summit, which is taking place in the Polish capital at the same time as the UN’s COP19 Climate Change conference, brings together policy-makers, business leaders and researchers to discuss how coal can continue to play a central role in global development while meeting the challenges posed by climate change.

WCA chief executive Milton Catelin said: “Technology is at the heart of the climate debate. The use of technology to combat climate change, however, is dependent on the support of the international community, through government policy and development bank funding.

“It is therefore important for the international community to support immediate deployment of high-efficiency low-emissions coal combustion technologies wherever it is economic and technically feasible. High-efficiency low-emissions coal combustion technologies are commercially available and, if deployed, can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the entire power sector by around 20%. This is equivalent to the total annual CO₂ emissions of India.”

The coal industry has the most to gain by leveraging the existing capital, knowledge and capacity to transform itself

The UN’s Christiana Figueres

Speaking at the WCA conference this morning, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change executive secretary Christiana Figueres likened the global effort needed to make coal a clean source of energy to the effort required to put a man on the moon.

“John F. Kennedy called for putting man on the moon in ten years at a point when no one knew how that would be done,” said Figueres.

“We must transform coal with the same determination, the same perseverance, the same will. We must be confident that if we set an ambitious course to low-emissions, science and technology will rapidly transform systems. Above all, you [the coal industry] must invest in this potential, because the coal industry has the most to gain by leveraging the existing capital, knowledge and capacity to transform itself.”

Today’s WCA conference was not without controversy. Greenpeace activists this morning protested on the roof of Poland’s Ministry of Economics and unfurled two banners, one that read “Who rules the World? Fossil industries or the people?” and another that read “Who rules Poland? Coal industry or the people?”.

Martin Kaiser, Head of the COP19 Delegation for Greenpeace International said: “Hosting a PR event for the coal industry during a climate conference is a slap in the face to all the people suffering from the catastrophic impacts of climate change. New investments in fossil fuels, like coal and oil, need to be stopped and transferred into renewable energy.”