KEY POINTS:
Over the next 30 years the world faces a significant disparity between rising carbon dioxide emissions from energy use and the need to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas levels over the same period.
The ongoing significance of coal and other fossil fuels as a global energy source underscores the important role for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies in addressing global emissions.
The Coal Association of New Zealand recognises that carbon emissions from thermal fuels need to be addressed as the world moves to a lower carbon future. We share the view of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) that a comprehensive portfolio of responses is required to combat emissions - being a combination of energy efficiency, renewables, CCS and other technologies.
Both the IPCC and IEA have identified CCS as one of the critical technologies needed to combat climate change. The IPCC estimated including CCS as part of a mitigation portfolio has the potential to contribute over half of the cumulative global mitigation effort while reducing costs by 30 per cent or more. Today the world relies on fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas) for 80 per cent of its energy. That figure is expected to rise slightly to 81 per cent by 2030 without significant technology breakthroughs.
In developing countries, access to energy, in particular electricity, drives economic growth and improvements in living standards. Rapid economic growth in China and India has been underpinned by the use of coal for electricity generation and in manufacturing.
In developed countries, coal-fired power stations continue to be built. In Germany, coal plants are being constructed which have the potential to reduce carbon emissions by up to 30 per cent compared with a standard lignite coal plant. However, the most significant advances in reducing carbon emissions from coal will require some form of carbon capture.
Commercial applications of CCS are feasible within the decade and could then be widely deployed with a favourable policy environment.
Progress on CCS is highly promising: "Complete CCS systems can be assembled from existing technologies that are mature or economically feasible under specific conditions," says the 2005 IPCC Special Report on Carbon Capture and Storage.
"Significant progress is being made in proving the commercial feasibility of CCS in projects such as the pilot scale demonstration of permanent storage of carbon underground in Victoria, Australia and commercial-scale trials of carbon capture by Sargas, Norway to remove 95 per cent of carbon dioxide from a coal-fired power station," it continues.
"There is widespread scientific and intergovernmental support for CCS as one of a combination of solutions to reduce emissions from organisations including the IPCC, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, IEA and the European Commission, among others.
"The world's largest emitter, China, is rapidly developing its own clean energy technology and would have the rest of the developing world as a potential market."
The modern coal industry has successfully developed technological solutions for the near-elimination of particulate and sulphur emissions - technologies which are now commonplace in modern coal-fired power stations.
The challenge is now to progress clean coal technologies to a stage where coal can be used as a near-zero emissions energy source.
In New Zealand, the Coal Association has been instrumental in establishing an industry and government partnership to explore and assess CCS solutions for this country. Among the partnership's activities has been to join the highly regarded Australian CCS research organisation, the Co-operative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC).
The pilot scale demonstration of permanent storage of carbon underground which began in April in Victoria, Australia is a CO2CRC project and is a major advance in the science and understanding of carbon sequestration.
Any country serious about climate change must include CCS technologies in its suite of abatement technologies alongside renewables. New Zealand, given its large lignite resource and reliance on increasingly expensive imported fuel sources, has more incentive to do so than most.
Chris Baker is executive chairman of the Coal Association of New Zealand which represents coal producers and the wide range of coal users in New Zealand - including many of the country's leading food and manufacturing exporters.
