According to a paper that miners say undermines campaigns by green activists to “demonise” coal, it will dominate the power sector globally for decades to come.
The paper was written by an International Energy Agency (IEA) consultant and to be sent to the Industry Minister in Australia’s conservative Liberal-National government, Ian Macfarlane.
The report says coal will remain the dominant power-sector fuel for at least the next quarter of a century despite efforts to diversify power sources and concerns about slower economic growth.
According to the News Corporation newspaper The Australian the report says the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology will be essential to “reconcile the ongoing importance of coal-fired power with the global environmental objectives”.
The Australian report says two CCS projects coming on line soon in North America could help secure the continuation of coal.
It also says that while coal use is declining in OECD countries, there will be a strong growth in power output in China, then later in India and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries.
It says coal will be the biggest driver of this growth.
Miners have seized on the paper to declare that coal will remain the backbone of affordable global energy for decades, and that attempts to undermine Australia’s coal industry are “simply a reckless attack on Australian jobs and the economy”.
Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Brendan Pearson told The Australian: “It will not stop the world using coal.
“Activist campaigns seeking to demonise Australian coal fail to acknowledge that it will be the principal global energy source for decades, transforming economies and helping eliminate poverty.”
The Australian says green groups have been pushing the government to reject mine developments in Queensland’s Galilee Basin and the Abbot Point coal terminal expansion in the Great Barrier Reef because of doubts about coal demand.
An Oxford University study recent found that coal projects in Australia could become stranded because of sagging demand from China.
The new paper was commissioned by the Energy Policy Institute of Australia, which wants to use it to shape an energy white paper being formulated by Mr Macfarlane.
The Australian reports miner Anglo American Australian advisory board chairman Graham Bradley said the findings should be welcomed as coal “will remain one of our largest export earners for decades to come provided that government policies continue to support the industry”.
