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Gomwe pleads with banks to back coal in fight against global energy poverty

18th November 2013

Creamer Media Editor

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JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Development banks must help developing countries to use their coal in the cleanest possible way rather than starve them of funding, World Coal Association energy and climate committee chairperson Godfrey Gomwe said on Monday.

Gomwe was speaking at the International Coal and Climate Summit in Warsaw, the venue of the nineteenth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP19), which is seen as an important step towards a comprehensive climate agreement in Paris in 2015.

The CE of Anglo American Thermal Coal told the COP19 gathering that coal’s role was poised to grow regardless of development bank support.

However, the risk was that cheaper, less efficient and more polluting technologies would be all many countries could afford in the absence of concessional finance.

Gomwe said many African children were still forced to study under street lamps and recalled how he himself was only able to study by electric light once he got to university.

The International Energy Agency, he noted, had already calculated that more than half of the electricity needed to end global energy poverty would have to come from coal, which underlined the need for the international community to help countries use coal in the cleanest possible way.

One per cent better power plant efficiency resulted in up to 3% less carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.

If power station efficiency were raised from the current 33% average to 40%, global carbon emissions would be cut by two gigatons.

“That's the equivalent of running the Kyoto Protocol three times over,” Gomwe said, adding that modern plant in some locations could also potential capture and store all the CO₂ prior to it entering the atmosphere.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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