Replacing coal to generate electricity will cost $6 billion (5.7 billion euros) and “will not be easy” as it requires “rapid financial mobilization” to close old power plants and introduce alternative energy sources, it said. him Tuesday. .
In a report on how to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050 with current coal use, the International Energy Agency (IEA) describes the scale of coal use and the challenges of phasing it out to meet the target.
Coal is the largest source of CO2 emissions (the main greenhouse gas) related to energy, with 15,000 million tons in 2021, so “the world must act quickly” to significantly reduce these emissions “to avoid major impacts from climate change”, warns the document.
“Coal is simultaneously the largest source of CO2 emissions in the energy sector and also the largest source of electricity production in the world,” said IEA director Fatih Birol.
Birol emphasizes that as countries expand clean energy in the face of the current energy crisis, “what to do with the vast amount of coal-related resources is an unsolved problem.”
Global coal demand has increased in 2021 (after the 2020 decline due to the pandemic) to 5.650 million tons.
According to data from the IEA, the energy sector is the largest user of this fuel, representing 65% of the total in 2021 and producing 36% of the world’s electricity.
In 2022, this use will increase (by 10% in India and 15% in the European Union, for example) due to high gas prices and to ensure energy security due to the war in Ukraine, although the agency believes that this will be a phenomenon of short-term.
In developed countries, the use of coal to generate electricity will have declined by 75% by 2030, while in developing countries it will peak in 2025 and then begin to decline.
In total, countries have announced commitments to reduce the use of coal for electricity production by 20% by 2030, which the IEA says is a “significant step forward”.
The report emphasizes that the transition from coal (either through coal substitution or through the use of emission reduction or capture technologies) can be achieved without significantly increasing costs to consumers.
“It takes an investment of $6 billion to replace coal, but this cost is more than offset by lower energy bills” for operators, Birol adds.
Much of that money will be needed to deploy alternative energy sources, which are expected to be renewable (90%) and nuclear (8%).
The IEA warns of two major obstacles to reducing the use of coal in energy production: many power plants in Asia are relatively new (an average of 13 years in China and Indonesia and only 8 years in Vietnam) and their operators have not recovered their investment, and coal mining is a major contributor to gross domestic product (GDP) and employment in some Asian countries.
For the closure or conversion of these installations, the AIE proposes measures such as government regulation (used in China), an increase in the price of emissions or financial incentives for the closure or conversion to other, less polluting fuels.
The report also looks at the elimination or substitution of coal in heavy industry (mainly steel and cement), which uses 30% of the world’s coal.
This is a sector where emissions “need to drop drastically” to meet the targets of the 2015 Paris Agreement, the document said.
Greater efficiency, the use of alternative fuels – such as hydrogen – and the use of new technologies that are not yet available on the market are some of the opportunities emerging in this sector.
Source: DN
