Coal and Climate Change
Greenhouse Gas
Emissions
What is the
Greenhouse Effect?
Naturally occurring gases in the atmosphere help
regulate the earth's temperature by trapping solar
radiation. This is known as the greenhouse effect.
Human activities such as agriculture and the burning
of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) produce additional
greenhouse gases, which are accumulating in the
atmosphere. Scientists believe the build up of
these gases is causing an "enhanced"
greenhouse effect, which could cause global warming
and climate change.
The major greenhouse gases include water vapour
(the most important), carbon dioxide (the second
most important), methane, nitrous oxide, hydroflourocarbons,
perflourocarbons, and sulphur hexaflouride.
Greenhouse gases from the coal industry globally
contribute less than 20 per cent to the enhanced
greenhouse effect. Around half of coal's greenhouse
gas emissions arise from power generation.
Australian producers are working hard to reduce
emissions of greenhouse gases associated with
mining operations. Major sources of greenhouse
gas emissions associated with coal mining are
fuel used in the actual mining operations, and
coal-seam methane released from underground workings
as the coal is extracted.
Improvements in mining efficiency, tree planting
associated with the rehabilitation of exhausted
minesites, and increased capture and use of coal-seam
methane, are the primary strategies being employed
to reduce emissions from mining operations.
Reducing Greenhouse
Gas Emmissions
It is not the use of coal, but how coal
is used that must be the focus for action:
Meeting the needs of an increasingly energy hungry
world, while at the same time reducing emissions
of greenhouse gases, is one of the major challenges
facing humanity in the 21st Century. Rapidly increasing
world energy demand will ensure that coal remains
a vital energy source for electric power generation
and the metallurgical industries for many decades.
By 2020, coal consumption will be 50% higher than
it is today. Ceasing the use of coal and other
fossil fuels in order to cut greenhouse gas emissions
is simply not a realistic option for the foreseeable
future.
Emissions from the mining and use of coal
contribute less than 20% to the enhanced greenhouse
effect:
Coal is just one of many sources of greenhouse
gases generated by human activity. Others include
oil and natural gas, agriculture, land clearing
and waste disposal. Greenhouse gases associated
with coal include methane, carbon dioxide and
nitrous oxide. Methane is released from deep coal
seams during mining. Carbon dioxide and nitrous
oxide are released when coal is used in electricity
generation or industrial processes such as steel
making and cement manufacture.
Research and development is the key to
reducing or eliminating greenhouse gas emissions
from mining and use of coal:
As with most other areas of human endeavour,
the technology associated with coal is dynamic,
not static. The pace and range of research into
coal-based greenhouse solutions is accelerating.
Advances in technology will ensure that the coal
plants of tomorrow will be very different from
those of today.
Next Page: Coal and the Environment
> Coal and Climate
Change > A
Lower Emission Future for Coal
|
