Eco-friendly coal: Russian scientists opposed the complete abandonment of the energy carrier

The development of technologies with reduced CO2 emissions will help solve environmental problems

Russian scientists MISIS, Russian State University of Oil and Gas named after. I.M. Gubkina and MGIMO made a collective statement against the complete abandonment of coal. The International Energy Agency is calling for it. Our experts do not believe that this is the right way out of the situation. Firstly, coal is the most accessible energy source for everyone, and secondly, when using the right technologies, it can be more environmentally friendly than hydrogen energy. Russian scientists MISIS, Russian State University of Oil and Gas named after. I.M. Gubkina and MGIMO made a collective statement against the complete abandonment of coal. The International Energy Agency is calling for it. Our experts do not believe that this is the right way out of the situation. Firstly, coal is the most accessible energy source for everyone, and secondly, when using the right technologies, it can be more environmentally friendly than hydrogen energy. Russian scientists MISIS, Russian State University of Oil and Gas named after. I.M. Gubkina and MGIMO made a collective statement against the complete abandonment of coal. The International Energy Agency is calling for it. Our experts do not believe that this is the right way out of the situation. Firstly, coal is the most accessible energy source for everyone, and secondly, if the right technologies are used, it can be more environmentally friendly than hydrogen energy.

Coal is an important energy carrier that can meet people’s needs for many years thanks to its vast reserves. Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and BloombergNEF analytical services insist on the need to completely phase out coal in favor of renewable energy sources.

According to the acting Head of the Department of World Commodity Markets at MGIMO Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Candidate of Economic Sciences Alexander Sarychev, the scenario proposed by the IEA does not allow creating a sustainable energy system due to a number of unresolved problems. Thus, the transition to renewable energy sources requires a radical increase in the input of industrial batteries, which is impossible without a technological revolution in this industry.

Meanwhile, in the last 20 years, coal power generation in the world has been actively modernized, technologies of supercritical and ultra-supercritical steam parameters are being introduced, allowing to reduce CO2 emissions by 10-20%.

According to the deputy director of the Center for Strategic Management and Commodity Market Conditions of NUST MISIS, Doctor of Economics Inna Stoyanova, coal is actively used in the world for energy generation simultaneously with wind and solar energy. “So, in the EU (and primarily in Germany), as a result of the economic downturn during the pandemic, low production of renewable energy sources due to climatic factors, the existing gas shortage and its aggravation against the background of the introduction of sanctions against Russian energy companies, the restoration of energy generation began precisely due to increased coal consumption. In 2022, coal use in the EU increased to 478 million tons (22% higher than in 2020),” notes Stoyanova.

In addition, scientists remind that the refusal to use coal as an energy source could kill the coal mining industry, which employs 8.5 million people worldwide. As for other alternatives to coal – nuclear energy and hydroelectric power plants, they are limited, respectively, by the ambiguous attitude of society and natural conditions. There is also hydrogen energy. But, as Alexander Sarychev noted, the prospects for using hydrogen as an energy carrier have not been fully determined.

“Research shows that greenhouse gas emissions from hydrogen power generation are higher than even from coal power generation,” the scientist notes.