22 COLUMN
@ green | July-August , 2022
Dirty coal use surging
The restart of economic activities and transport by late 2021 increased substantially to meet pent-up demand
LAL ‘ S CHAT
BY G . LALCHAND
PLANET Earth is in severe trouble and “ burning ” literally and figuratively , no thanks to the impact of climate variability ( climate change ) caused by the unsustainable actions of the global human community . Recent events include extensive floods , drought and record-breaking high temperatures in many cities worldwide even before summer in the Northern hemisphere has peaked .
The unusually high temperatures have also caused severe forest fires on multiple continents . Indeed these occurrences have given humanity a deserved “ kick in the pants ” to take serious note of the hazards that “ Mother Earth ” faces from climate change and variability and not to take climate change and its variability lightly .
This variability has been highly severe over the last half-decade , which also saw the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic .
How quickly does human industrial activity negatively impact the global climate and draw a rapid response from “ Mother Earth ”? And can climate change deniers still be adamantly committed to their false perceptions ?
The global lockdowns imposed almost universally in early 2020 to fight the Covid- 19 pandemic saw a practically immediate cleaning up of the atmosphere and marine environment due to the severe restrictions imposed on industrial and mobility logistic activities ; the two most polluting activities .
Of course , there were also some sad cases of families of otters ( in Singapore ) venturing into the homes of the high-end citizens to feast on their pet fish stocks of Goldfish and Koi fish in their outdoor fish ponds .
In Malaysia too , we saw the almost incredible clean up of heavily polluted rivers such as Sg Pinang in Penang . There was additional benefit of clear air as motorised transport was severely curtailed , thus reducing the horrendous polluting emissions from fossil fuelpowered vehicles .
Sadly , the pandemic also caused untold misery to the underprivileged segment of the working population , who suffered from being jobless and not having the means to put food on their tables for their families .
However , even this was not such a bad thing . It brought the best out of Malaysians , who did a fantastic job of caring for these underprivileged segments of the population .
The pollution reductions were attributed to the massive decrease in industrial activity and all forms of transport , which were predominantly dependent on fossil fuels . Thus , reducing polluting emissions from these sources contributed to the clean-up of the atmosphere and marine environments .
Reduced consumption of fossil fuels
The reduced consumption of fossil fuels helped reduce the global community ' s emission aspirations . It was seen as a positive sign to comply with the COP ( Conference of the Parties ) 15 in Paris in 2015 to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5oC by the end of the 21st century .
This was particularly encouraging as the trend of coal consumption had appeared to have peaked in the 2010s and begun a decline as shown in the Chart I . eration and fossil fuel for transport . Some producing sources were shuttered , thus decreasing their prospective output if and when needed .
Economic activities
The restart of economic activities and transport by late 2021 surged substantially to meet the pent-up demand of the consumers who had to do without their desired needs and luxuries . The pent-up market created an exceptional surge in demand for their energy needs , which soon exceeded the available resources , especially for clean , renewable energy ( RE ).
Unfortunately for Planet Earth , the most readily available sources were from fossil fuels , with “ dirty coal ” being the front runner for electricity demand . So , after being a relatively declining source of primary fuel for electricity generation , it became a sort of life-saver for several countries which depended on it for the bulk of their electricity generation needs , notably China , India , Indonesia and the like , until their existing reserves started to run out .
A glaring example quoted in the IEA ( International Energy Agency ) report on coal for 2021 is India , whose reserves fell from about 30 days to as low as five days over about three months .
The same IEA report indicated that coal use for power generation peaked at an alltime high in 2021 and was anticipated to be even higher for the next few years up to about 2024 . It certainly doesn ' t auger well for the global aspirations to at least “ Phase down ” instead of “ Phase out ” coal for power generation as agreed at COP 26 in Glasgow in November 2021 .
This trend of fossil fuel use certainly jeopardises desired emission reduction
Chart 1
The beneficial impact was rapid , and it wasn ' t long before the atmosphere cleared sufficiently to make the snow-capped peaks of the Himalaya Mountains visible from far away New Delhi after about three decades .
And can we so quickly forget the fantastic scenes of rarely seen wildlife “ reclaiming ” their share of human habitats when the cities near their forest domiciles were emptied of human beings ?
It took about two years for the global medical community to find the vaccines to control the pandemic when lockdowns started . Many countries eliminated or significantly reduced their stringent restrictions on economic activities and mobility to restart their economies .
The lockdowns and restricted economic activities had the unintended effect of reducing energy demand for power gen- path to limit global temperature rise to 1.5oC as agreed at COP 21 in Paris in 2015 , unless more aggressive efforts can be mobilised to overcome the current blip .
And sadly , the after-effects of the battle against Covid-19 have caused a surge in the use of dirty coal for power generation , thus making the goal of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5oC a more demanding task . — @ green