Low emission coal-II: How to make best use a $ 1 billion investment to curb emissions?
May 18: Proponents for clean coal provide a hypothetical scenario in which policy makers had $1 billion to spend with the objective of producing the highest levels of electricity with the lowest emissions profile. There can be several potential approaches: 8In the first scenario, the investment could be directed to continue the transition in Europe from gas (CCGT –baseline) to renewables. This would result in moderate reduction in emissions, although much lower levels of electricity generation. 8Secondly, the investment could fund a transition away from subcritical coal based power plants to wind and solar deployment in ASEAN. This too is impractical given the much lower levels of electricity generated. 8In the final scenario, for the same level of expenditure, investment in high efficiency low emission coal based technology would achieve a similar level of CO2 emissions reduction to the deployment of renewables in Europe, while generating up to three times more electricity. 8Financiers are now being urged to adopt a ‘fuel agnostic’ approach to climate action. Climate support regimes based on fuel, rather than on a technology basis can lead to unintended consequences, the argument goes. Click on Reports for more