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SCIENCEFriday 23 March 2018
Report: Coal's tipping point near, but climate goals are not
By MATTHEW BROWN of demand for coal in the
Associated Press
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — De- decades to come," said
clines in coal power plant
construction in China, India Benjamin Sporton, chief ex-
and the U.S. are projected
to push the heavily-pollut- ecutive of the World Coal
ing fuel over the edge—
but not fast enough to Association.
meet international cli-
mate change goals, en- "To put in some context,
vironmental groups said
Wednesday. even with the cancellation
Coal's dominance as the
fuel of choice for gener- of some proposed plants,
ating electricity has been
slipping as cheap natural planned capacity addi-
gas and renewable energy
sources challenge its de- tions in India are still more
cades-long reign.
A joint report by the groups than three times greater
CoalSwarm, Sierra Club
and Greenpeace projects than Germany, a major
that by 2022 retirements of
older, more polluting coal coal user," Sporton said in a
plants will outpace new
plant construction for the statement released by the
first time in the modern era.
The findings are in line with London-based organiza-
data from the International
Energy Agency, which re- tion in response to Wednes-
cently declared coal was
in a "decade of stagnation" day's report.
with demand declining at
a level last seen in the early The group did not direct-
1990s.
Having fewer coal-fired ly dispute the claim that
plants would bolster inter-
national efforts to move coal's growth in the power
away from the cheap and
widely available fuel. Coal sector will peak by 2022.
accounted for about 70
percent of worldwide pow- Meanwhile, finding money
er sector emissions of the
greenhouse gas carbon This Dec. 14, 2017 file photo shows the coal-fired Nelson Dewey Generating Station in Cassville, to build coal plants is get-
dioxide in 2016, according Wis., being imploded. ting harder, Roberts said.
to the International Energy That's driven in part by
Agency estimates. Associated Press
Yet the authors of Wednes-
day's report and indepen- some major investors such
dent analysts agree the
pace of decline is still too centigrade (3.6 degrees of coal projects that were the previous year, accord- as pension funds and mul-
slow to meet the goals of
the Paris climate accord. Fahrenheit). once on the drawing board ing to government figures. tinational insurance com-
The 2015 agreement was
intended to fend off the "There is no way that we — equivalent to more than That reflects the stance by panies that have pledged
worst effects of climate
change by holding global see right now that you can 1,000 coal-burning power China's leaders that coal to stay away from coal
temperature increases to
no more than 2 degrees hold to a two-degree cen- units, according to CoalS- will remain a key piece of projects because of their
tigrade limit like scientists warm director Ted Nace. its ongoing economic ex- air pollution and climate
want us to if coal is in the Still, there are pockets of pansion, even as the com- impacts. The head of Store-
mix," said Andy Roberts, expected growth, accord- munist nation has become brand Asset Management,
global coal research direc- ing to Roberts and other the world leader in renew- Norway's largest private
tor for the consulting firm observers, with new plants able energy development. asset manager with more
Wood Mackenzie. "The wild expected to go up in Pointing to China's exam- than $90 billion under man-
card in all that is the re- southeast Asia, Turkey and ple, industry representatives agement, Jan Erik Sauges-
search dollars being spent Pakistan. stress that coal remains es- tad said coal investors "are
in renewable energy...That In China — by far the world's sential to balancing the living on borrowed time" as
could be a game chang- largest coal consumer — global energy budget institutional money instead
er." the amount of coal that into the foreseeable fu- pours into solar and wind
In the U.S., President Don- was mined increased ture. Potential increases in projects. Storebrand be-
ald Trump's vociferous pro- about 3 percent in 2017 to India and southeast Asia gan divesting from coal in
motion of coal has had at reverse a dramatic drop "will be the driving force 2013.q
best a modest impact on
the industry. Wednesday's
report noted that the U.S.
Sweet science: Putting corncurrently has no new coal
plants under construction.
syrup to work on Earth's originsIn India and China, coal
project cancellations have
been growing as the world's By JENNIFER McDERMOTT day in the lab. belts to study how tectonic
two most populous nations NARRAGANSETT, R.I. (AP) — She thought using a com- plates drift and shift.
struggle to clear polluted How has the Earth evolved, puter model would be lim- The corn syrup represents
skies that have had dra- and what's in store for the iting. So she designed and the Earth's mantle, which
matic negative health im- future? It's a sticky question built a large tank, filled it melts to form magma at
pacts. that has graduate student with 2,000 pounds (907 ki- volcanoes and ridges. The
Combined, they've shelved Loes van Dam covered in lograms) of corn syrup, and belts are the drifting and
more than 500 gigawatts corn syrup by the end of a added six counter-rotating shifting tectonic plates.
Their intersection is the
ocean ridge. Syrup in the
tank, which measures 5
feet (1.5 meters) wide, 5
feet (1.5 meters) long and
1½ feet (0.3 meters) tall,
slowly moves as the belts
pull apart. . Cameras re-
cord the flow in what van
Dam has named the “ridge
zone replicator.”q
