Global demand for coal will increase in the next five years

Although the just-concluded Lima “United Nations Climate Change Summit” strongly called for the suspension of the use of fossil fuels, the International Energy Agency recently released a report saying that global demand for coal will continue to increase for some time to come. It is expected that by 2019, demand will reach a record high. Record 9 billion tons.

According to the British "Guardian" report, the goal set at the Lima Summit was to achieve zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. This goal has been supported and recognized by many countries. The meeting also focused on whether or not countries should be forced to announce their own emission reduction plans by the spring of 2015. However, the final agreement only requires member states to announce their emission reduction plans by March 31 next year.

The difficulty of reducing emissions is not small. People are worried about the current energy use situation in various countries and will not be able to ensure that the global warming is less than 2 degrees Celsius. The latest report on actual energy trends released by the International Energy Agency has deepened people's concerns. Because the data given in the report proves that the current coal consumption has risen sharply from 7.2 billion tons in 2010, it is increasing year by year.

The Director of International Energy Agency Maria van der Huven stated frankly that, despite the demand for emission reductions in various countries, and many recent pledges and policies aimed at mitigating climate change, these commitments and policies are basically in the next five years. None can curb the growth in coal demand. “Although coal's contribution to energy security and energy supply is undeniable, I must reiterate that the current use of coal is not sustainable. To change this, we need to radically accelerate the deployment of carbon capture and storage technologies.” Maria Van der Hufen said.

According to the forecast of the International Energy Agency, global coal demand will increase at an average annual rate of 2.1% until 2019. This figure is lower than the 2.3% forecast for last year and is also lower than the actual growth rate of 3.3% from 2010 to 2013.

It is worth mentioning that the International Energy Agency also mentioned in its mid-year coal market report that China has promised to diversify its energy production, and it is expected that by 2030, its natural gas, renewable energy, and nuclear power generation will show an astonishing increase. But even so, by 2019, a large part of the global coal industry growth will come from China. At the same time, India and other Southeast Asian countries will also become the main driving force for the increase in coal consumption.

Since the Lima summit failed to reach an agreement on reducing carbon emissions quotas, relevant experts believe that the IEA's forecast is a very dangerous development trend. In its current state, coal-fired power plants produce only 40% of the world's electricity, but are responsible for more than 70% of global emissions. For the time being, regardless of the allocation of emission credits, all countries urgently need to take actions to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants.