The company said chairman and CEO Gregory Boyce has led the way as the industry's prime advocate working to alleviate energy poverty with greater use of “21st century coal”, having long held that greater deployment of clean coal technologies were essential for a rapid transition to low-carbon, high-efficiency energy systems around the world.

"Advancing social and economic progress with clean energy is the role of leaders globally," Boyce said. "India is a prime example of a nation asserting its right to grow and creating energy access for all of its citizens. Clean energy from coal is a major part of the solution and will be essential to achieving that goal."

Boyce said the best way to further human development and achieve environmental goals was by accelerating deployment of today's technologies that have a track record of results. Longer term, Boyce said investments in next generation technology to capture carbon dioxide are needed to bring solutions to commercial scale.

Under Boyce's leadership, Peabody has:

• Advanced a multi-step plan to alleviate global energy poverty with clean energy solutions as a major priority for policy and action;
• Led development of one of the largest new clean US coal-fired plants built in the past three decades with $US1 billion in emission control technologies;
• Served as the only non-Chinese partner in the signature GreenGen power plant and carbon research centre in Tianjin, China, which could be the world's largest near-zero emissions coal plant at full scale;
• Served as a founding member of the FutureGen Alliance in the United States to advance carbon capture and storage technology and contributed $20 million to Australia's Coal21 Fund for next-generation coal technologies;
• Sponsored the Consortium for Clean Coal Utilisation at Washington University in St. Louis, the National Carbon Capture Centre in Alabama, and was a founding member of the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute in Australia;
• Delivered low-carbon solutions across Peabody's global platform with a 10 percent reduction in greenhouse gas intensity across the global platform this past year; and
• Worked to increase public awareness and support of 21st century coal and the essential role it plays in advancing economic progress and a better quality of life through a globally-recognized advocacy initiative.

BP’s 2014 Statistical Review of World Energy revealed coal to be the world's fastest-growing major fuel, while Wood Mackenzie projects it to overtake oil as the world's largest energy source in coming years.

The World PetroCoal Congress Energy and Environment Foundation Global Excellence Awards were introduced in 2011 to celebrate excellence, innovation and best practice in the energy and environmental sectors.