The Road to Copenhagen

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The Road to Copenhagen

17 June 2009

International climate change negotiations are reaching a critical stage, with a new global agreement due to be reached at the end of 2009 in Copenhagen. Negotiations are being held over the course of 2009 as nations attempt to reach agreement on new commitments beyond the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period which ends in 2012.

Coal & Copenhagen

The World Coal Institute has put together a series of ‘Climate Policy Papers’ outlining the role that coal plays in meeting global energy demand, the technologies that are available to reduce emissions from coal which ensure that coal use is compatible with efforts to reduce CO₂ emissions, and the steps WCI believes are needed if climate change is to be successfully addressed.

Climate Policy Paper 1 - Coal Meeting Global Challenges

Coal is an essential energy resource and raw material for industrial production and electricity generation, has a vital role in long-term sustainable development and can be used in a manner consistent with climate change goals. WCI calls on countries to work with industry and support this vision for coal as a key resource able to meet the challenges of the coming decades.

Climate Policy Paper 2 - Reducing Emissions: A Central Role for Efficiency

A successful response to climate change requires reducing CO₂ emissions from coal use. While CCS is a key technology to reduce CO₂ emissions from coal use, other technologies - such as improving the efficiency of coal-fired power plants – provide opportunities for significant and cost effective emissions reductions.

Climate Policy Paper 3 - CCS and the CDM

The inclusion of CCS as Clean Development Mechanism Project Activities would strengthen the CDM and represent an important step towards accelerating the wide scale deployment of CCS and achieving the ultimate objective of the climate change treaties – the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol – the reduction of global CO₂ emissions. WCI supports the inclusion of CCS in the CDM and in any successor mechanism after the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period ends in 2012.

Climate Policy Paper 4 - CCS and the Post-2012 Agreement

The world is using increasing quantities of coal to meet its energy needs and will rely on this essential energy resource for many decades to come. CCS is the only currently available technology that allows deep cuts to be made in CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels and must be deployed at huge scale if climate change is to be successfully addressed. Substantial effort is being made now to accelerate the development and deployment of CCS in developed countries. WCI believes that any revised or new international climate change agreement must build upon and enhance these efforts to accelerate the commercialisation of CCS.

Climate Policy Paper 5 - Investing in CCS

Successfully addressing climate change requires the deployment of low-carbon technologies at a scale and rate not previously witnessed. CCS will make an essential contribution to global emissions reduction efforts; attempting to address climate change without CCS is estimated to increase costs by over 70% – an additional annual cost of US$1.28 trillion by 2050. The WCI believes that the new international climate change agreement must play a central role in increasing worldwide investment in CCS.

Climate Policy Paper 6 - Electrification of the Transport Sector

Stabilising CO₂ requires deep cuts to be made in emissions from all sectors. The transport sector emits almost 20% of the world’s CO₂ emissions and presents a challenge for emission reduction efforts as the sector is predicted to still rely heavily on oil-based fuels in the coming decades. Decarbonisation of the electricity sector can generate significant emission cuts in transport through substituting fossil fuels with low-carbon electricity. Capturing and storing CO₂ from a single, large point source, such as a coal-fired power station, is much simpler than reducing CO₂ emissions from many 1000s of vehicles, enabling these emission reductions to be delivered more cost effectively. Electrification of the transport sector would offer significant emissions reductions potential.