Breaking the coal taboo

WHAT DO we do with coal and the electricity it generates? This is the zillion-dollar question in the face of the twin challenges of climate change and the urgent need for energy to power homes, factories and shops across vast parts of the still-developing world. The world is fast running out of the carbon budget to keep temperature rises below 1.5°C—a guardrail against out and out devastation. We need solutions that can and must work in the interests of all. This is where the coal question becomes complicated. It is easy to say “keep it in the ground”—do not use coal for generating electricity as it is more than certainly responsible for the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions that have already filled our shared atmosphere. But how will that work in an energy-insecure world?

- SUNITA NARAIN

It is also a fact that the rest of the sermonizing world has for generations used its coal for electricity—its emissions are still in the atmosphere; carbon dioxide (CO2), for instance, has a really long lifespan—and this world is now mostly switching to another fossil fuel, only somewhat cleaner natural gas, which further adds to greenhouse gas emissions. The European Union (EU) has signed what it bills as a historic trade deal with the United States (US), under which it promises to import energy products—natural gas, crude oil and coal—amounting to a massive US $250 billion a year for three years. This may be a castle-in-the-sky-kind of promise, but it does imply that the EU has agreed to remain wedded to fossil fuels, countering its green energy plans.