Status: 07.10.2021 5:44 p.m.
In Europe, the number of coal-fired power plants is falling. Nevertheless, almost half of all coal miners and electricity suppliers worldwide want to expand further, as a study shows.
By Lilli Hiltscher, tagesschau.de
Almost half of all companies in the coal industry worldwide have expansion plans. This is shown by the “Global Coal Exit List” published today by the environmental protection organization urgewald, which it set up together with 40 other NGO partners. “There are still new coal production projects with over 1,800 million tons of annual production capacity in the pipeline,” the analysis said.
Wilfried Rickels from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) is not surprised by the numbers in the study: “The number of coal-fired power plants that are still in operation or that are being built is still very large.”
Because, according to the expert, existing coal-fired power plants in particular are often less than ten years old. The operators therefore invest primarily in these power plants. Although fewer and fewer new power plants are being planned worldwide, the installed capacities of coal-fired power plants have increased by 157 gigawatts worldwide.
China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam are the largest coal nations
Urgewald has published the “Global Coal Exit List” every year since 2017. This year, 1030 corporations and their subsidiaries are on the list that work along the value chain of the coal industry. According to the environmental organization, more than 500 of these companies are pursuing further expansion plans. The reason: Although the price of coal is rising, it is still cheaper than other energy sources such as natural gas.
The main players in the coal market are primarily countries in Southeast Asia such as China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam. But Australia and Russia are also continuing to expand their coal production, says Katrin Ganswindt from urgewald: “In Queensland, Australia, a lot of projects for new coal mines are being planned. Because the country is banking on a growing coal market in Asia. Whether that will prove to be true, however currently still open. ” The reason for the expansion in Australia is the high volume of hard coal, explains the expert from the Institute for the World Economy: “For years, climate protection has not been particularly important there. That is changing, but the processes are simply very slow.”
Coal is seen by many as a “climate killer”
It is unclear what impact the announcement from China will have that it will no longer build power plants abroad in the future. “Of course this announcement goes in the right direction, but the processes are all very slow. And China will continue to build new power plants in its own country,” said the expert from the Kiel Institute, dampening optimism. At urgewald and other environmental organizations it is hoped that this will bring about a change in the Asian market. Because in countries like Bangladesh or Pakistan, more than half of the new coal projects are financed with Chinese aid.
The issue is particularly explosive in view of the upcoming climate conference in Glasgow, because coal is considered a “climate killer”: According to estimates by Greenpeace, the use of fossil fuels is responsible for around half of annual CO2 emissions. That is why environmentalists like Urwald have long been calling for coal to be phased out worldwide – by 2040 at the latest.
Europe has a duty
Here, environmentalist Ganswindt sees Europe as having a duty, because if a clear signal for an exit date came from here, it could send a clear signal to Asia. After all, new power plants and mines will continue to be built there, but the willingness to do more climate protection is increasing in these regions too. Urgewald advocates that Europe phase out coal as an energy source as early as 2030.
In addition to the exit date, it is also important that the mines are actually closed. “Otherwise the positive balance is invalid,” says Ganswindt. In the USA, for example, a third of coal-fired power plants were shut down between 2011 and 2019, but they were not closed. Many were switched to gas.