Research shows coal fired power is Australia's top greenhouse polluter
06 Apr 2003
SYDNEY: A small group of coal fired power stations is Australia's largest source of global warming, pumping out 170 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, says a new WWF-Australia scientific report.
The report, by Dr Mark Diesendorf, reveals that electricity generation produces one-third of Australia's greenhouse emissions and that 97 per cent of these emissions are produced by 24 coal-fired power stations.
"The greenhouse pollution produced by these power stations is equivalent to the annual emissions from about 40 million cars, four times Australia's actual car fleet," says Dr Diesendorf, Director, Sustainability Centre and formerly Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Technology, Sydney.
"Australia is one of the world's most coal dependent nations and needs to diversify its electricity supply by increasing the use of renewable energy and super-efficient gas. Governments should also introduce stronger energy saving regulations."
The WWF-Australia report also shows the Australian public is unaware of the significant role of coal fired power in contributing to global warming or Australia's dependence on coal to generate electricity. Public surveys revealed that only 33 per cent of those surveyed knew that coal was the main fuel for producing electricity in Australia. The source most nominated was hydro.
Figures in the report based on data from 2000/01 show that New South Wales and Victoria are the leading coal-fired greenhouse polluters.Coal-fired power stations in the Hunter Valley, Lake Macquarie and Lithgow produce about 60 megatonnes of greenhouse emissions; Victoria's La Trobe Valley produces around 57 megatonnes, Queensland's Stanwell, Callide, Gladstone, Collinsville, Tarong and Swanbank emit around 40 megatonnes while Western Australia accounts for 10 megatones and South Australia for 5 megatonnes.
Launching the report, Jennifer Morgan, Director of WWF's International Climate Change Program, said Australia needed to accelerate adoption of cleaner ,energy efficient alternatives.
"Coal was the first fuel of the industrial era of the nineteenth century ? times and technology have moved on and Australia should change its energy investment patterns and follow the example set by other countries where reliance on coal is diminishing," she said.
Dr Diesendorf's report shows that the trend of increasing coal use in Australia has been more dramatic than the industrialized (OECD) country average and more than in countries like the USA, Germany and China.
"From 1996 onwards, China closed down many, small, inefficient and high polluting uses of coal and began substituting natural gas for coal in home heating. As a result, China's coal consumption and greenhouse gas emissions have decreased, despite a rapidly growing economy," he said.
The report also voices concerns about the safety of underground storage of carbon dioxide emissions (geosequestration). Carbon dioxide is collected, compressed and transported in high-pressure pipelines to long-term storage or 'sequestration' points. Currently, three types of storage are being researched ? underground storage or geosequestration, ocean sequestration and conversion and reuse of carbon dioxide.
"The big question marks over all types of underground storage are the volume of carbon dioxide that can be safely stored, whether storage will be secure, gaps in scientific knowledge and the economic costs and environmental impacts," said Dr Diesendorf.
