The share of energy generated from coal fell sharply during the coronavirus pandemic than that of any other power source, according to a new report on Monday that looked at the demand for coal in some of the world’s largest greenhouse gases.
The shift in coal power has had a significant impact on global carbon dioxide emissions that are heating up the earth, according to the researchers, and could lead to an acceleration of the global shift to renewable energy.
The report, led by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, analyzed the emissions and demand for electricity in the United States, Europe and India.
Ottmar Edenhofer, director and chief economist of the Potsdam Institute and an author of the study, said the findings were surprising because natural gas has traditionally had the highest operating costs of all power sources, and so gas plants are usually the first to be taken. offline when the demand for power drops. However, the sharp drop in gas prices during the pandemic seems to change the calculation and make coal power more expensive than gas power.
Coal emits more carbon dioxide than any other form of power generation, so even the relatively small decrease in demand that caused coal plants to go offline has led to significant decreases in greenhouse gas emissions. The burning of coal for power also pollutes the air, releasing toxins linked to heart and lung problems and some neurological disorders.
In some regions studied, a 20 percent decrease in power demand from the 2019 monthly averages coincides with a 50 percent decrease in carbon dioxide emissions. The decrease in emissions in terms of demand for coal was strongest in Germany, Spain and Britain.
The coal report could survive the pandemic, the report said. This is because it is expensive to power plants that use renewable energy, such as wind or solar power. Once completed, however, it is not necessary to purchase fuels to drive it.
According to a separate study by Ember Climate, an energy research organization in London, global wind and solar power capacity increased last year despite the pandemic. This, combined with the relatively low operating costs, means that a larger share of the total energy is likely to come from low emissions or renewable sources if demand for power bounces back.
However, the authors of the Potsdam report noted that so-called brown recovery plans that expand coal power are still a possibility. This is of particular concern in parts of Southeast Asia, where energy demand is growing rapidly, but high interest rates could lead to strong costs for renewable energy projects.
“We are not saying that we predict that coal will be phased out,” said Dr. Edenhofer said. “What we are saying is that this is an excellent opportunity, and it would be good if energy and finance ministers from around the world took advantage of the situation.”
Katrin Ganswindt, who works on energy and finance campaigns for the German environmental organization Urgewald, noted that market forces could push some countries to a brown energy recovery. She noted that the appetite for new coal-fired power plants in China is declining, leading Chinese coal corporations to pursue new coal projects in neighboring countries.
“The consideration is ultimately always a financial consideration,” she said. Ganswindt said. “It’s less risky to do what you know instead of changing it, because the risk of climate change still seems so unrealistic or so far away.”