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#Coal power: A need or a compromise?

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Editorial

Today, many countries still keep betting on maintaining an energy balance via natural resources: an approach that can have a huge negative impact on the environment.

The examples are China and India in Asia and Germany in Europe. These countries use the coal industry - recently, the World Bank has published a report stating that climate change, which will involve more droughts, floods, heatwaves and other severe weather conditions, poses a serious global threat, particularly to poor, vulnerable and marginalized populations, who are often hit hardest by its effects.

“Prolonged use of coal has an effect on the already hard life of some of the world’s poorest countries, impacting on human health and leading to adverse climate change, which is imposing even graver consequences on the developing world,” said World Bank climate change representative Rachel Kyte.

“In general, globally, we need to wean ourselves off coal, if we want to be able to breathe clean air,” Kyte added.

Around 39% of CO2 emissions come from electricity companies operating on coal. Coal companies have pushed back against efforts to fight climate change by arguing that fossil fuels are a cure to “energy poverty”, which holds back developing countries. This argument is used by countries who don’t want to follow the decision of the UN Climate Conference that took place in December 2015 in Paris, the results of which had been the agreements providing for a   significant reduce in carbon dioxide emissions.

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Certainly, coal mining, its processing and transformation into energy for many countries is not just a method to deliver electricity and heat. In a number of cases, coal production is strongly connected with the life and wealth of people who work  for the industry.

“We often find ourselves in the unusual position of trying to explain to people that this isn’t just about economy. People matter, and they particularly matter when you are trying to build something in their community that will impact them directly. That’s true for the United States and for every country in the world,” said John Coequyt, the Sierra Club’s director of international climate campaigns.

This is why the decisions to support and develop coal energy are often mandated   by political issues rather than energy needs.

Furthermore, it is obvious that this approach cannot go without harsh environmental consequences for a country and even whole geographical regions. All coal mining, transportation and transformation activities should be based on their sustainable impact on the environment. The keystone of the coal industry   problems is, first of all, mining operations’ negative environmental impact. Nevertheless, mining corporations hardly ever plan to create any joint base for the proper reclamation of waste facilities to restore soil to its original state.

Numerous environmental effects may be minimized though cannot totally be eliminated, even with cutting-edge equipment. Open-pit mining destroys all types of plants, ruins the soil and expels or destroys different types of animals and their habitats, worsens air quality and changes the general profile of the earth’s surface.

During the coal mining, processing and burning, significant air pollution occurs - the dustiness of the atmosphere is increased with burning dumps and terricones and explosions in quarries. This influences the level of solar radiation, temperature and the rainfall level. At the same time, long-term coal mining in any given area increases operational risks. The potential of mines to extract coal at high rates gradually decreases because the mining work is taking place deeper underground.

This potentially increases the risk of accidents, burnings, and fires at the mines. It is well known that the coal is easily flammable even at the stratum because it has a big number of volatile elements of waste rock. At the mines where there is no active mining process without a fire emergency system installed, the coal residues can burn for   many years. The harm to the health of those who are not directly linked to the work in the mines, is associated with air pollution from coal combustion worldwide.

According to the Lancet medical journal, 210,000 deaths, almost 2 million serious illnesses and more than 151 million minor illnesses per year, excluding the effects of climate change, are caused by air pollution from coal combustion. This calculation is based on European pollution standards and population density.

In countries with lower air pollution standards, higher use of coal of poorer quality harms health even greater.  For example, a study in China, the results of which were reported in Markandya in 2007, estimated 77 deaths per TWh from a coal-fired power plant that met Chinese environmental standards. This exceeds the number of deaths per TWh of coal combustion in Europe in three times. Each year, around 250,000 people die from coal combustion in China. If we take a look at the energy industry in general, it is quite obvious that there are real alternatives to coal as the energy source.

Its use in developing and developed countries is often a political issue which is explained by social stability support but not the effort to establish a smart, effective and environmentally safe energy system.

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