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Burying lousy climate policies in Warsaw – by Peter Foster (National Post – November 22, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Gore in Toronto, chaos in Warsaw, and carbon capture on the ropes

The Al Gore climate parade rolled into Toronto Thursday, apparently oblivious to the fact that he was coming to praise the Ontario Liberal government for its successful relaunch of the province’s giant fleet of nuclear reactors, 4,250-megawatts of carbon-free electricity production. Premier Kathleen Wynne, in comments at an event with the Goracle, also neglected to mention that it is thanks to nuclear power that her government can now go through the charade of proposing a complete ban on the burning of coal. Oh oh. Time for Ontarians to start hoarding charcoal briquettes?

The Gore-Wynne Toronto love-in looked distinctly at odds with the intergovernmental hate-in that is now winding down in Warsaw. In the Polish capital, where the official IPCC gathering of the NGO tribes and state climate negotiators has been underway for two weeks, the climate circus has been reduced to its ugly core, which has little to do with science and everything to do with money and power, with the UN as the ringmaster.

After the abject failure of the Copenhagen conference in 2009, rich countries hypocritically signed on to provide $100-billion annually to “poor” countries by 2020. Now poor countries want their hand outs, and it’s not about mitigation any more, it’s about “compensation” for climate crime.

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Coal Seen as New Tobacco Sparking Investor Backlash: Commodities – by Jesse Riseborough & Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – November 20, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

About $8 trillion of known coal reserves lie beneath the earth’s surface. The companies planning to mine and burn them are being targeted by a growing group of investors concerned with the greenhouse gases that will be made.

Storebrand ASA (STB), which manages $74 billion of assets from Norway, sold out of 24 coal and oil-sands companies since July including Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU), the largest U.S. coal producer, citing a desire to cut fossil-fuel industry holdings. This month Norway’s opposition Labour Party proposed banning the country’s $800 billion sovereign wealth fund from coal investments.

“Maybe we’ve hit some kind of nerve in the debate,” Christine Torklep Meisingset, Storebrand’s head of sustainable investments in Oslo, said by telephone. “Hopefully, other investors will be acting along the same lines. There could be an interesting parallel to tobacco.”

The movement is an offshoot of a campaign by more than 70 investors to pressure all fossil-fuel industries on climate change. It harks to the 1990s anti-tobacco push and is gaining help from unlikely partners.

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Like it or lump it: Coal isn’t going anywhere soon – by Carl Mortished (Globe and Mail – November 19, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Not one but two climate change meetings are currently under way in Warsaw. You may be aware of the conference sponsored by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, another effort to agree cuts to carbon emissions after the failure in Copenhagen in 2009. In a provocative gesture, the Polish government is simultaneously hosting a summit meeting of the World Coal Association.

Whether we like it or not, it is the activities of the latter organization which have more significance for human health, wealth and the state of the planet.

Coal is no longer king of energy, it is global emperor. Coal is the fastest-growing source of energy and, according to the International Energy Agency, will remain the top fuel for power generation for the next two decades. Its affordability and accessibility will make it the electricity-generating fuel of choice in Asia, replacing expensive liquefied natural gas.

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A coal slurry shame – by Martin Wissmath (Hinton Parklander – November 18, 2013)

http://www.hintonparklander.com/

Sherritt International Corp., the company that owns the Obed mine 30 kilometres northeast of Hinton, could now be responsible for the largest coal mining waste-water spill in Canadian history.

But could government regulators and environmental authorities have done more to prevent it from happening?
A billion litres of slurry spilled into the Athabasca River on Halloween when a storage pond at the Obed mine site broke apart.

Slurry is the concoction of materials and chemicals, including coal and thickening agents called flocculents, mixed with the water in the mine storage ponds. Coal mines in Alberta are required to contain liquid runoff to prevent it from pouring into the provincial waterways. Consider this an epic fail.

A spokesperson for Sherritt initially told the Parklander the waste-water consisted of “naturally occurring” materials, but mentioned the extra chemical agents, which are standard for coal-mining storage ponds, after further inquiry.

The spill was innocuously labelled a “sediment release” by Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development.

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COLUMN-Is there any future for coal? – by John Kemp (Reuters India – November 18, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

(John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)

Nov 18 (Reuters) – Climate campaigners reserve a special scorn for coal-fired power generation. Coal has replaced nuclear as the form of energy that environmentalists most love to hate.

“The world needs to turn its back on the fossil fuels of the past, like coal, which have helped to create today’s climate and instead look to the clean, renewable energy sources of the future,” the UK charity Christian Aid said on Monday.

“If we are to avoid dangerous climate change we must leave most of the remaining coal reserves in the ground,” the charity warned. Christian Aid branded the decision to host a meeting of coal producers in Poland at the same time as the UN climate summit in Warsaw “perverse”. Governments have been less dogmatic. But at least in the advanced economies, policymakers see little positive role for coal-fired power generation in future if the world is to meet a target of limiting global warming to no more than 2 degrees by 2050.

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UN climate chief urges coal industry to leave most remaining coal reserves untapped – by Monika Scislowska (The Associated Press/Vancouver Sun – November 18, 2013)

 http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

WARSAW, Poland – The U.N.’s chief climate diplomat on Monday urged the coal industry to diversify toward cleaner energy sources and leave most of the world’s remaining coal reserves in the ground.

On the sidelines of a U.N. climate conference, Christiana Figueres told dozens of CEOs of coal companies meeting at Poland’s Economy Ministry that their industry needs to change radically to curb emissions of heat-trapping gases that scientists say are warming the planet.

“The world is rising to meet the climate challenge as risks of inaction mount, and it is in your best interest to make coal part of the solution,” Figueres said.

The coal event was seen as a provocation by climate activists, who used a crane to reach the ministry’s roof, where they unfurled banners criticizing Poland’s — and the world’s — reliance on coal and other fossil fuels.

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Opposition politicians raise questions about government’s handling of coal waste water spill that released dangerous chemicals – by Marty Klinkenberg (Edmonton Journal – November 15, 2013)

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/index.html

EDMONTON – The coal mine pond that leaked into the Athabasca River on Oct. 31 contained a range of potentially damaging compounds, including a suspected carcinogen called phenathrene.

According to the National Pollution Release Inventory, a database kept by Environment Canada, the impoundment at Sherritt International’s Obed Mountain mine also contained arsenic, mercury, cadmium, lead and manganese.

Found in contaminated water and air, phenathrene is one of a group of chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that are known to cause tumours in laboratory animals.

Alberta Environment has refused to release information about the contents of the plume of waste water that stretches more than 100 kilometres down the Athabasca River, other than to say it contained high levels of suspended solids, including such things as clay, mud, shale and coal particles.

Department officials maintain the leak poses no health concerns, but have advised communities downstream not to draw water from the river.

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Mine ruling a test of political mettle, says Rio – by Sarah-Jane Tasker (The Australian – November 14, 2013)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business

MINING giant Rio Tinto has warned that a new planning application for its Warkworth coalmine in NSW is a “litmus test” for the ability of governments to deliver regulatory results to match their economic aspirations.

The miner has been fighting to expand its coalmine in the Hunter Valley region after the Land and Environment Court put the brakes on plans earlier this year, after Rio had already received government approvals to proceed.

Rio has appealed the court decision but its chances of winning are slim, leading the miner to look to a short-term measure to keep the operation open and 1300 people in a job. The company this week lodged an application to access 350m of land to keep its production at an economic level.

Rio Tinto Coal Australia managing director Chris Salisbury said that seeking access to the extra land was the only real option Rio had to avoid further significant impacts on production and jobs. “Importantly, it will also provide us with two years to look at options for further planning approvals to provide a longer-term future for the mine,” he said.

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Poland, Wedded to Coal, Spurns Europe on Clean Energy Targets – by Danny Hakim and Mateusz (New York Times – October 31, 2013)

http://www.nytimes.com/

BELCHATOW, Poland — They call it Poland’s biggest hole in the ground. The coal mine here is more than eight-and-a-half miles long, nearly two miles wide and as deep in parts as three football fields. Enough coal comes out of it to fuel Europe’s largest coal-fired utility plant, whose chimneys loom in the distance.

“The entire world population could fit in this hole,” Tomasz Tarnowski, an administrator here, said in a bit of proud hyperbole as he led a group of reporters on a walk near a towering mound of brown coal about halfway into the mine.

Poland is Europe’s coal colossus. More than 88 percent of its electricity comes from coal. Belchatow is one of its huge sources and the largest carbon emitter in Europe. (There’s no “belch” in Belchatow — it is pronounced bel-HOT-oof.)

This month, a United Nations conference on climate change will be held in Poland, a location many environmental activists consider the least appropriate choice they could imagine. And while the European Union has mapped out ambitious clean-energy goals intended to reduce the greenhouse gases linked to global warming, Poland has been its fossil-fuels holdout.

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Rio Tinto in Mozambique withdraws expatriate families over safety – by Manuel Mucari (Reuters U.K. – November 1, 2013)

http://uk.reuters.com/

MAPUTO – (Reuters) – Mining company Rio Tinto is withdrawing expatriate employees’ families from Mozambique for their safety in a sign that an upsurge in kidnappings and violence is worrying investors.

Other major companies developing big coal and gas reserves in the former Portuguese colony, Brazil’s Vale, U.S. oil company Anadarko and Italian oil and gas group Eni, said they were closely following political developments there, after clashes between the government army and opposition Renamo guerrillas.

London-listed Rio Tinto, which mines and exports coal from northwest Tete province, said in a statement it was arranging to send home the families of foreign employees.

It announced the move a day after tens of thousands of Mozambicans marched in the capital Maputo and two other cities to protest against the threat of armed conflict and a recent spate of kidnappings by criminals.

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Calgary coal mining firm disputes land use plan – by Amanda Stephenson (Calgary Herald – October 29, 2013)

http://www.calgaryherald.com/index.html

A Calgary company wanting to bring coal mining back to the Alberta side of the Crowsnest Pass is raising serious concerns about a new draft land use plan for southern Alberta.

Altitude Resources Inc. said it will express its fears about the proposed South Saskatchewan Regional Plan at upcoming public consultation sessions. Altitude chair Gene Wusaty said if left as is, the plan could clip the wings of southern Alberta’s fledgling coking coal industry and serve as a roadblock to economic development.

“The way we look at it, there’s no real balance (in the plan) for economic activity,” Wusaty said. “We’re going to have, I think, one kick at the cat here to be heard. Because if it passes, the chances of us going back and getting it changed are going to be pretty slim.”

The South Saskatchewan Regional Plan – unveiled by the Alberta government earlier this month – is meant to guide future decisions on development, recreation and conservation in the province. Touted as a balance between development and conservation, the plan proposes 32 new and expanded recreation and conservation areas, with nine new or expanded provincial parks and three new or expanded recreation areas.

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Illinois’ Teachable Moment: The True Cost of Coal, Slavery and Historical Markers – by Jeff Biggers (Huffington Post – October 28, 2013)

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

As another coal train derailed in southern Illinois last weekend, the Illinois State Historical Society teamed up with the Illinois Coal Association on Saturday for their own collision with history during the installation of a historical marker for the state’s “First Coal Mine.”

The real train wreck: Among numerous errors, the Illinois State Historical Society marker fails to mention that other coal mines abounded in southern Illinois, thanks to enslaved African American labor — including the so-called “first coal mine” — while the Illinois Coal Association took the occasion to erroneously bash “environmental regulations” for mining job losses, as the Prairie State plunges head-long into a new coal rush and a reckless environmental and health disaster.

What gives, Illinois State Historical Society? Doesn’t history matter — at least over the hackneyed phrases of the Big Coal lobby, even if they provided most of the funds for the historical marker?

While our nation now recognizes that “Black History Month” emerged from historian Carter Woodson’s “six-year apprenticeship” in the West Virginia coal mines, isn’t it time for the Illinois State History Society to stop finding excuses in the Land of Lincoln — and Obama — and finally come clean on the secret legacy of slavery in our coal mines and salt wells, if only to remind us of cautionary tales for our own times?

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Ontario shuts down Lambton power plant ahead of schedule – by Adrian Morrow (Globe and Mail – October 23, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

 TORONTO — One of the last coal-fired power plants in Ontario has been shut down early, bringing the province’s Liberal government closer to fulfilling a long-delayed promise, industry and Queen’s Park sources told The Globe and Mail.

Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli will announce Wednesday that the coal plant in Lambton, near Sarnia, Ont., finished operating in late September, three months ahead of schedule, the sources said. The government, which is on a long-term mission to replace all of the province’s coal facilities with greener sources of energy, said in January that the Lambton plant, along with another in Nanticoke, would close by the end of the year.

But one source said the government moved the time-frame for Lambton up to the end of September, and the plant burnt its last coal Sept. 26. The source said the Nanticoke plant is set to keep burning until Dec. 31.

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Coal to surpass oil as top global fuel by 2020: report – by Florence Tan (Reuters/National Post – October 16, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Coal will surpass oil as the key fuel for the global economy by 2020 despite government efforts to reduce carbon emissions, energy consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie said on Monday.

Rising demand in China and India will push coal past oil as the two Asian powerhouses will need to rely on the comparatively cheaper fuel to power their economies. Coal demand in the United States, Europe and the rest of Asia will hold steady.

Global coal consumption is expected to rise by 25% by the end of the decade to 4,500 million tonnes of oil equivalent, overtaking oil at 4,400 million tonnes, according to Woodmac in a presentation on Monday at the World Energy Congress.

“China’s demand for coal will almost single-handedly propel the growth of coal as the dominant global fuel,” said William Durbin, president of global markets at Woodmac. “Unlike alternatives, it is plentiful and affordable.”

China – already the top consumer – will drive two-thirds of the growth in global coal use this decade. Half of China’s power generation capacity to be built between 2012 and 2020 will be coal-fired, said Woodmac.

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CHINA, ZAMBIA, AND A CLASH IN A COAL MINE – by ALEXIS OKEOWO (New Yorker Magazine – October 10, 2013)

http://www.newyorker.com/

Alexis Okeowo received support for the reporting in this post from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Twelve hundred Zambians gathered on a sunny morning in August of 2012 to protest at Collum Coal Mine, which is located in a rural southern province and, at the time, was owned by five Chinese brothers. They were angry about the working conditions in the mine: Collum had been cited several times by Zambia’s government for labor violations, and miners said that they felt unsafe working there. They were also upset about annual wage increases that they said amounted to only a single Zambian kwacha—the equivalent of twenty cents.

The miners learned that a Chinese foreman had brought outside workers to replace them during the protest, according to one of the protesting miners, twenty-eight-year-old Robert Mundike. Mundike and his co-workers confronted the foreman at one of the mine’s shafts and assaulted him. Then, according to Mundike, they beat up more Chinese workers, along with Zambian miners who were still working even though the protesters had told them not to.

The group—which included not only Collum miners but also their relatives and former workers who said they were owed wages—was becoming restless. They reached another mine shaft, near a cluster of houses where several Chinese supervisors lived. Five Chinese men ran from the settlement, past the coal-carrying conveyor belt and a rock crusher and into the mine, Danny Sikatari, who works as a mine foreman but who did not participate in the protest, told me.

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