Latest news with #decarbonise
BBC News
a day ago
- Business
- BBC News
Clean energy: India can't wish away coal - but can it be made cleaner?
India has always taken a hard position on coal, arguing that it is crucial for its energy security and developmental energy experts and environment campaigners are increasingly saying it should at least try to decarbonise or curtail emissions from coal-fired power plants, if it can't be phased out altogether. "You can't wish away coal," Ashok Lavasa, a former secretary of union ministries of finance, and environment, forest and climate change, said at an event on 1 July."The question is, if coal is king, then can it be a benevolent king?"This signals to the fact that, realistically speaking, coal - albeit cleaner coal - may remain the primary power source of energy in India, despite years of international climate talks asking for the highly polluting fossil fuel to be phased out entirely. But why has India - the world's third largest carbon emitter - decided to stick to coal in the first place? After all, the country has international obligations to significantly cut its carbon emissions, along with its own target to bring down the levels to net zero by 2070.A part of the answer lies in the rising power demands of the electricity demand has grown by more than 9% between 2021 and 2025, surpassing a previous prediction of 6.6% - and it is now forecasted to double by power plants have generated more than 70% of the total electricity supply every year since the early 2000s - a figure that remains unchanged. But the environmental cost of this reliance on coal is suggest that India's electricity generation alone accounts for more than 40% of the annual carbon emissions – and nearly three-quarters of that electricity comes from country has made progress in meeting its renewable energy targets - it contributes 46% of India's total installed capacity - but renewable sources have limitations. They generate electricity when the sun is up and the wind is at daytime, experts say, supply from renewables can fluctuate, whereas thermal plants remain a constant source of electricity and are able to cater to peak demand in the evenings and at nighttime. What's more, India's energy storage capacity - or the ability to store excess electricity from renewables at daytime - has not been able to keep pace with the expansion of resources."This means that there is no other option [other than thermal energy for constant supply] unless and until we have large-scale storage quantities in the system," said Rajiv Porwal, director with Grid India, the grid controller of India under the ministry of power, speaking at the 1July event, organised by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). Experts say constant supply from thermal plants is crucial for the stability of the grid, or the network of towers and transmission lines that carries electricity from power plants to consumers."Any large mismatch of demand and supply will destabilise the grid and that can mean power-cuts and blackouts, similar to what we recently saw in Spain," says Anjan Kumar Sinha, an independent power sector all these factors at play, India is looking to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants, instead of phasing out coal completely. A recent report by the CSE said that decarbonisation from coal-based thermal plants alone can cut down the country's greenhouse gas emissions by 30%.This is particularly significant given the country's commitment to reduce emissions intensity (carbon emissions produced per unit of a country's economic output) by 45% by 2030 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. But there are common problem thermal plants face is that they must keep running at least at 55% capacity even at daytime, despite having alternate renewable sources like wind and solar power to rely because operators cannot ramp up capacity to the fullest at short notice, particularly during the peak hours of evening when supply from renewables is say there is an urgent need to make thermal plants more efficient so they can run at a lower capacity."How low can we go [to bring down the minimum running level threshold] is the question," said Ramesh Veeravalli, a member with India's Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, speaking at the event. "Technically it is possible."Another way to improve efficiency of plants is to adapt technologies that capture carbon dioxide emissions to keep them from escaping into the atmosphereBut some say this has produced limited results, with one estimate by the World Resources Institute saying the technology at present captures only about 0.1% of the global emissions.A third suggestion is to burn agricultural residue in the place of coal in thermal plants."This idea has led to a substantial reduction in coal usage in thermal power plants in Delhi and surrounding cities," said Parth Kumar, a programme manager with CSE that has suggested methods of reducing emissions in its recent report."But other parts of the country are yet to adopt this seriously, even though regulation requires them to," he say that reducing emissions from coal-fired power plants would need larger systemic changes, involving huge how much that cost would come down to - and who would bear it - are tough questions with no immediate BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook
ABC News
2 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
‘Huge risks' and ‘huge opportunities': Sector welcomes focus on green steel in China
The Prime Minister has spent much of the day trying to guarantee the future of Australia's critically important exports to China's steel industry, wrapping up a high-level roundtable on green steel in Shanghai. Australian coal and iron ore exports have fuelled China's construction boom and underwritten Australian prosperity for years, pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into the budget. But as China's steel industry moves to decarbonise — as well as diversifying its imports and winding down production — Australia's long resources boom faces an uncertain future. One solution is finding ways that Australian resources companies can help Chinese companies produce "green steel" — that is, steel produced with less carbon emissions. Laura Tchilinguirian spoke with Director of the think tank Climate Energy Finance, Tim Buckley.
News.com.au
2 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
‘Big problem': Choice that could decide Australia's economic future
Australia's over reliance on unexpected high iron ore prices to fix the national budget could be coming to an end, with a key choice from China to decide Australia's future. The Prime Minister held a roundtable on Monday with key local mining figures and Chinese steelmakers to spruik the benefit of buying Australian iron ore. Much of Australia's wealth is made off the back of the mining sector, as Australia pockets around $105bn in return for supplying China with around two-thirds of its iron ore needs. In 2024, Australia sold more than $150bn of iron ore around the world. But this relationship is coming under threat as China's huge steel manufacturing sector looks to decarbonise, meaning they could need the higher quality iron ore found in the likes of Brazil and Guinea. AMP chief economist Shane Oliver told NewsWire how damaging any changes to iron exports would be to the national economy depends on the pace of change. 'My take on that is if it occurs gradually over time, then Australia would adjust,' he said. 'If it occurs very quickly in a short space of time then it'd be a big problem.' 'It comes to the broader issue that about 35 per cent of our exports go to China,' Dr Oliver said. Dr Oliver flagged it could be any number of reasons which could impact Australia's iron ore miners, listing supply from other sources, a hit to the Chinese economy, geopolitical issues with the US as potential reasons for slowing this trade. He said while there was fresh interest in the issue in the context of other tensions between the two countries, the problem was nothing Australia hadn't endured before. 'I can understand why people love to talk about it, but it's been around for the last couple of decades and it is an issue,' he said. 'By the same token in a market economy like Australia, the decision of where our exports go is basically, I'd say 90 per cent driven by free markets and companies operating within that.' Despite the looming risks, Australia could remain 'the lucky country' based on two potential replacements to the country's large iron ore intake. 'We had been moving towards services exports, particularly education,' Dr Oliver said. 'That is why we have to be careful here that Australia doesn't shoot itself in the foot by restricting immigration that turns off the education export sector that is a potential replacement. 'I suspect if things had continued as they were we would have found a situation where in the next few years, education would've been our second highest export, ahead of gas and coal and just behind iron ore.' However, Australia is already struggling with a housing crisis and both major parties used the recent election to point to international students as a key reason why rents are skyrocketing. Previous research from the Property Council of Australia suggests just 4 per cent of rentals were taken up by international students, while a further 6 per cent was taken up by domestic students. The other aspect is a boost to the lithium and rare earths sector which is tipped to boom in future years. 'You want to make it easier for companies to develop new industries, with rare earths for example being a potential hedge [to iron ore],' he said, noting Australia had plentiful reserves.
ABC News
2 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
PM speaks on green steel in Shanghai
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spoken on the future of Australian coal and iron ore exports as China moves to decarbonise.
