THE HIGH COST OF COAL

From The True Cost of Coal, Greenpeace International’s newest report: “Today, coal is used to produce nearly 40% of the world’s electricity. However, burning coal is one of the most harmful practices on the planet. It causes irreparable damage to the environment, people’s health and communities around the world. The coal industry isn’t paying for the damage it causes, but the world at large is. It’s this cost – the true cost of coal – that this report reveals, showing and quantifying its effects on people and the environment around the world.”

The subtitle to the report explains everything: “ How people and the planet are paying the price for the world’s dirtiest fuel.”

The cost of coal is not simply its market price. Because it is an established source of electricity generation, the world accepts without thinking the prices coal exacts in human health and environmental harms.

This report seeks to document the costs that are “externalized” (i.e., paid in ways that are external to the market price).

Once the externalized costs of coal are included in its market price, New Energy can easily compete with it in the marketplace and quickly become the preferred source of electricity generation.

From the report: “The true cost of coal underlines the urgent need for action to avoid the disastrous consequences of a coal-powered future. While most governments so far have been slow to react, community movements are forming across the globe and demanding an end to coal. These movements are strong and gaining momentum. The good news is that a future without coal is possible: the world already has enough technically accessible renewable energy to meet current energy demands six times over. For example, it is estimated that the world's wind resources alone could generate enough power to supply twice the projected electricity consumption in 2020.”

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The True Cost of Coal; How people and the planet are paying the price for the world’s dirtiest fuel
Dr. Erika Bjureby, Mareike Britten, Irish Cheng, Marta Kaźmierska, Ernest Mezak, Victor Munnik, Jayashree Nandi, Sara Pennington, Emily Rochon, Nina Schulz, Nabiha Shahab, Julien Vincent and Meng Wei (w/Rebecca Short and The Writer), December 2008 (Greenpeace International)

WHO
Greenpeace International

WHAT
In The True Cost of Coal, Greenpeace documents the reasons it is among the leaders of a worldwide war on coal-fired electricity generation.

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WHEN
- Coal burning existed for centuries before its documented use as a fuel in the 1100s.
- Coal powered the Industrial Revolution.
- The 1st U.S. coal-fired power plant – Pearl Street Station – opened on NYC’s lower East River in September 1882.
- Between 1999 and 2006, world coal use grew 30%.
- In 2005, coal made up ~ 41% of all emissions.
- If present coal plant plans go ahead, coal emissions will increase 60% by 2030.
- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says global GhGs must peak
by 2015 to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

WHERE
- Worldwide, 11 billion tonnes of CO2 come from coal-fired power generation yearly.
- The Greenpeace report documents devastations of mining and burning coal in Columbia, India, Russia, Inodnesia, China, Thailand, South Africa, Poland, Kentucky, Germany, Australia and the Phillipines.

WHY
- Millions of people are already know impacts from climate change and an estimated 150,000 people die each year from its effects.
- Coal’s market price is only a part of its real cost.
- Burning coal does not only cause harm via CO2 emissions. It also releases nitrogen oxide, methane and black carbon.
- Burning coal also releases toxic chemicals such as mercury and arsenic.
- Leaking waste poisons fish in rivers and crops on farmlands.
- It causes black lung disease and kills miners in cave-ins.
- Coal plants caused an estimated 356 billion euros in harm in 2007.
- Coal-related accidents caused 156 million euros of damages in 2007.
- Mining caused an estimated 674 million euros in harm in 2007.
- Carbon capture and storage (CCS) cannot do what it is hoped it will someday do in time to prevent the worst effects of global climate change so the temptation of it must be set aside in favor of New Energy solutions now accessible.



QUOTES
- From the report: “James Hansen, the top NASA scientist, has stated that the ‘single most important action’ needed to tackle the climate crisis is to reduce CO2 emissions from coal– an opinion repeated by experts around the world.”
- From the report: “In an age of high energy prices and seemingly insatiable energy appetites, the lowest-cost energy sources tend to be the most favoured. While coal might be comparatively cheap in the marketplace, in reality the cost of coal is far too high and the world simply cannot afford to continue using it. Given the availability of alternatives such as renewable energy and energy efficiency, which can meet our energy needs in a safe and climate-friendly way, there is no need to continue relying on coal. We must reduce our dependence on this dirty fuel and abandon plans to build new coal-fired power stations. The true cost of failing to do this – and not harnessing instead the potential of a clean, sustainable energy – is something we dare not contemplate.”