The global impact of coal power

People in India, Asia and Eastern Europe suffer the worst health effects from the pollutants emitted by coal-fired power plants. (Image: Christopher Oberschelp/ETH Zurich)

With data and modelling from almost 8000 coal power plants, researchers from ETH Zurich present the most comprehensive global picture to date of climate and human health impacts from coal power generation.

A question of quality

The global picture of coal power production shows that the gap between privileged and disadvantaged regions is widening. This is happening for two reasons. Firstly, wealthy countries – such as in Europe – import high-quality coal with a high calorific value and low emissions of harmful sulphur dioxide. The poorer coal-exporting countries (such as Indonesia, Colombia and South Africa) are left with low-quality coal, which they often burn in outdated power plants without modern flue gas treatment to remove the sulphur dioxide. Secondly, “In Europe, we contribute to global warming with our own power plants, which has a global impact. However, the local health damage caused by particulate matter, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide occurs mainly in Asia, where coal power is used to manufacture a large proportion of our consumer products,” says Oberschelp.

Coal power threatens to grow worldwide

Global coal resources will last for several hundred years, so the harmful emissions need to be limited politically. “It is particularly important to leave coal that is high in mercury and sulphur content in the ground,” says Oberschelp. Reducing the negative health effects of coal power generation should be a global priority: “But further industrialisation, especially in China and India, poses the risk of aggravating the situation instead,” write the researchers led by Hellweg in their article.

The initial investment costs for the construction of a coal power plant are high, but the subsequent operating costs are low. Power plant operators thus have an economic interest in keeping their plants running for a long time. “The best option is therefore to not build any new coal power plants. From a health and environment perspective, we should move away from coal and towards natural gas – and in the long term, towards renewable energy sources,” says Oberschelp.

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