The Need for Clean Coal
Proven world coal reserves amount to around 900 billion tonnes, equivalent to over 150 years supply at current rates of usage. Against this background, and with the massive growth in coal use in economies such as China and India, climate change policies need to include clean coal as part of the solution.
European Policy
In its 2007 Energy Package the European Commission stated that “while the transition from traditional coal to Sustainable Coal will certainly not be costless, it may prove a priceless contribution to climate change mitigation.”
UK Developments
The first of the environmental measures listed in Chapter 7 of the 2007 Budget was “that the Government will launch a competition to develop the UK’s first full-scale demonstration of carbon capture and storage, the result of which will be announced next year”. This was accompanied by a press release from Alistair Darling who said “The UK can be the birthplace of the world's first full scale Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) demonstration plant”.
In the Energy White Paper published in May 2007, Government recognised three principal methods for reducing carbon emissions from fossil fuel fired power generation - improving coal-fired power station efficiency, co-firing coal with biomass, and carbon capture and storage. Further details were given of the competition for CCS demonstration, to be launched in November 2007.
The competition was launched on 19th November 2007 in conjunction with a speech by the Prime Minister.