WCA CEO Benjamin Sporton said the IEA report, issued in the lead-up to the critical UN Conference of Parties conference in Paris in November, highlighted how crucial cleaner coal technologies would be if global climate ambitions were to be met.
“Even in a world with significant growth in renewable energy the IEA says coal will still be a critical part of the global energy mix for decades to come,” Sporton said.
“That means there must be more investment in high-efficiency, low emissions coal-fired power generation and carbon capture and storage.
“Calls to end the use of low efficiency coal plants must be matched by policy measures that support deployment of the most efficient coal technology. That means support must be made available to those countries who have determined coal is a critical part of their energy mix.”
Sporton said development banks and climate finance mechanisms had to provide financial support for highly efficient coal technologies, which was why the WCA recently proposed a global Platform for Accelerating Coal Efficiency to help countries build the best technology.
This initiative proposed that moving the current efficiency rate of coal-fired power plants from 33% to 40% by deploying more advanced off-the-shelf technology could cut 2 gigatonnes of CO2 emissions.
This is the equivalent of running the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme for 53 years at its current rate, and running the Kyoto Protocol three times over.
Sporton said while the IEA emphasised carbon CCS technology was vital to achieving global climate ambitions, the Global CCS Institute also noted the total global commitment to CCS was just $20.7 billion – less than 3% of the funding already being committed towards renewables.
“The [IEA] report notes that high efficiency coal plants are also an important first step on the pathway to deploying carbon capture and storage – which requires significant further investment, according to the report,” he said.
“We call for more serious commitment to CCS from governments. CCS must be given policy parity with other low emission energy sources. This includes the same public support, feed in tariffs and other mechanisms currently available for renewable energy.”
The IEA report underlined the importance of early investment in CCS to drive down cost and improve competitiveness as a CO2 abatement option in the power sector. It noted the world’s first commercially operating coal-fired CCS plant commenced operation at Boundary Dam, in Saskatchewan, Canada in 2014.
“The Boundary Dam project is a milestone in CCS deployment and highlights the significant benefits of large-scale demonstration,” Sporton said.
“The Boundary Dam plant is already showing the cost of CCS can be driven down in future projects. As the IEA report noted, this means that coal-fired electricity with CCS will be competitive with other low emission power generation.”
The IEA report warned that “the present pace of progress … falls short of that needed in order to achieve the pace and scale of CCS deployment necessary to achieve a 2C [degrees Celsius] pathway”, referring to the extent to which climate change is to be limited.
The IEA report also backed European Big Oil’s recent call for a price on carbon, but said efforts in this regard have proved insufficient.
“Putting a meaningful price on CO2 emissions is viewed by many as integral to achieving the 2C climate goal,” the report stated.
“The current picture, however, reveals significant challenges relating to the geographic coverage of carbon markets, the prevailing price levels and, in some cases, the need for market reform.
“Carbon emissions trading schemes in operation in 2014 covered 3.7Gt (11%) of global energy-related CO2 emissions and had an aggregate value of $26 billion.
“The average price was around $7 per tonne of CO2. In contrast, 4.2Gt (13%) of global energy-related CO2 emissions from the use of fossil fuels receive consumption subsidies, with the implicit subsidy amounting to $115 per tonne of CO2, on average.”
