[RC] Coal use in rapid decline

[BILROJ via Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community]

 
Coal’s decline has been a slow burn that suddenly seems  to be picking up
 
 
Written by
_Cassie Werber_ (http://qz.com/author/cwerberqz/)  
April 15, 2016 
 
 

So  long?
Reuters

 
 
If you wanted to tell the story of coal in one line, it would look like  
this: 

Commodity prices fall for two big, connected reasons. Either there’s too 
much  of the thing available, or the markets that wanted it before now want 
less. Of  course, one often drives the other, and for coal, both are the case. 
Cleaner  technologies, supported by international climate legislation, are 
taking over  from dirtier ones—and coal is the dirtiest. 
The shift happened first in more developed economies, but developing ones  
were still burning the black stuff. Now, they’re stopping, too. 

All of this looks to be accelerating the decline of the coal industry, 
which  just had a truly awful week. 
Exhibit A
On April 13, Peabody Energy Corp., the world’s largest privately owned coal 
 company, _filed  for bankruptcy_ 
(https://www.newscientist.com/article/2084292-whats-behind-bankruptcy-of-worlds-largest-private-coal-firm/)
  in the 
US. It was the last chapter in a story of structural  decline that began as 
early as 2011. 

The first market the company lost was at home. Over the last five years,  
shale gas has flooded into the US market, providing an alternative that was 
both  cleaner, and helped energy companies get in line with incoming or 
anticipated  legislation on emissions. The company sought other markets. But 
last 
year China,  the biggest user of coal in the world, began to cut its 
consumption—in part  because of its economic slowdown, and in part because of 
its 
own climate  goals. 

US firms are by no means alone in seeing their coal companies struggle. The 
 UK _closed  its last working coal mine_ 
(http://www.politico.eu/article/last-day-of-coal-mining-in-britain/)  in 
December 2015. Subject to heavy 
environmental  constraints, most of its remaining coal plants must close by 
2020 
or convert—as  the massive _Drax  plant is doing_ 
(http://qz.com/471288/the-uks-top-polluter-wants-to-be-its-biggest-renewable-energy-producer/)
 —to 
burn something other than coal. Eastern Europe has held  out as a bastion of 
coal-burning on the continent, but this week the dire state  of its industry 
was also revealed. Talks have taken place in the Czech Republic  and Romania 
on how to prop up the loss-making mines, or help them through the  process 
of shutting down, _Politico  reports_ 
(http://www.politico.eu/pro/europe-chokes-on-coal/http://www.politico.eu/pro/europe-chokes-on-coal/)
 . 
Exhibit B
Sentiment continues to turn against coal. Norway’s massive sovereign wealth 
 fund (containing $860 billion, much of which has been generated through 
the  countries oil revenue) began divesting from some fossil fuel companies in 
 2015. 
On April 14, it said it would _stop  investing_ 
(http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-14/norway-s-860-billion-fund-drops-52-companies-linked-t
o-coal)  in 52 companies linked to coal (including Peabody, a little  
late). 
The decision isn’t purely ethical. Investors in fossil-fuel reserves don’t 
 want to be left with “stranded assets,” or reserves that will be 
impossible to  burn because of future legislation or emissions restrictions. In 
a 
speech this  week in Oxford, UK, Al Gore, the former US vice president and a 
high-profile  climate campaigner, said these unburnable assets were _worth  
$22 trillion_ 
(http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-14/norway-s-860-billion-fund-drops-52-companies-linked-to-coal)
 . 
Exhibit C
The investment that used to go into coal is going increasingly to 
renewables.  In 2015, investment in renewables was double that for coal and gas 
combined,  according _to  a study_ 
(http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-14/norway-s-860-billion-fund-drops-52-companies-linked-to-coal)
  (pdf, 
p.11) from the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management. 
Also this week, _the  sun provided_ 
(http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/13/solar-power-sets-new-british-record-by-beating-coal-for-a-day)
  
more power to British homes than coal for the first time in  history 
(though admittedly only on one single day). For _one  month last year_ 
(http://qz.com/454751/coal-wasnt-the-main-source-of-american-electricity-for-one-month-t
his-year-for-the-first-time-ever/) , coal wasn’t the biggest producer of US 
energy, for the  first time ever.

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