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https://freedium.cfd/https://medium.com/predict/this-one-thing-is-killing-the-planet-c6fb4f82a410>
'Want to know something terrifying? We can't seem to quit the one thing
dragging us towards a climate apocalypse. A report by Global Energy Monitor
found that global coal capacity grew by 2% last year. The West is trying to
phase out this dirty and toxic energy source, but economic conditions are
significantly slowing this down, meaning only 21 GW of coal power was retired
last year. Meanwhile, 69.5 GW of brand-new coal power plants came online,
two-thirds of which were in China and the rest in Asia, the Indo-Pacific and
Africa. This meant the global coal capacity grew by a massive 48.5 GW in 2023,
the greatest increase since 2016! Why is this a problem? Well, not only is coal
power by far the most deadly power source we have, being over 1,000 times more
deadly per unit of energy than nuclear power, but it is also the leading
contributor to our rapid slide toward climate and environmental Armageddon. Let
me explain.
Let's delve into the facts. Coal power is the most polluting form of energy,
emitting a staggering 950 g of carbon dioxide per kWh of energy. To put this
into perspective, solar and wind energy hovers around 5g — 10g per kWh, and
natural gas emits about 350g per kWh. Despite coal accounting for only 36% of
the global energy mix, it's responsible for a staggering 73% of the energy
sector's carbon emissions. This is why coal is a major culprit in climate
change.
In fact, some have argued (and I agree with them) that coal is the cause of our
upcoming climate doom. A study from researchers at the Chalmers University of
Technology and Lund University, Sweden, looked at current global carbon
emissions and countries' plans and projects to reduce these emissions over the
next few decades to try and calculate what level of global warming we are
likely to see. Sadly, they found that we are far from doing enough to meet our
climate targets and, instead, are on course to fly right past them to 3 degrees
Celsius of warming. That is enough to cause global catastrophic levels of
environmental destruction. But they also found that we could avoid this
apocalyptic future and meet our climate targets by doing just one thing:
phasing out coal power.
This study is far from unsupported. The UN recently warned that global coal
capacity needs to be reduced by 6% per year to avoid a worldwide climate
emergency. The Global Energy Monitor report also agreed with these researchers,
pointing out that coal plants need to be shut down far faster. In particular,
they highlight how China must adopt stricter controls on its coal capacity
expansion, as they are by far the worst coal offender. In fact, an analyst from
Global Energy Monitor has said that coal phase-out is imperative "Otherwise, we
can forget about meeting our goals in the Paris Agreement and reaping the
benefits that a swift transition to clean energy will bring."
This is where we can give a sense of scale to how vast the coal problem is. The
scientific consensus is that to meet our climate targets, coal needs to be
fully phased out by 2040. This requires 126 GW of coal plants to be phased out
each year; that's the equivalent of two plants being decommissioned per week,
or six times the current coal plant shutdown rate, all without any new plants
being built between now and 2040. But, instead, last year, a brand-spanking new
coal plant came online on average every week!
So the question has to be asked: Why are we, and in particular China, building
so many coal plants rather than renewables when we know coal is the thing
killing the planet?'
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
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mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
