Coal : the global picture

14Nov
2012
Dinner debate in Brussels

MEP Jerzy Buzek in the chair

Speaker:

Dr. Hartmuth Zeiss, President of EURACOAL

Intervention by Mr Alastair Grant, Senior Advisor, PT Adaro Energy Tbk.

The decade to 2010 saw global coal use grow faster than any other energy source. Almost half of the growth in electricity consumption was fuelled by coal, nowhere more so than in developing countries such as China and India.

This trend continued in 2011, with China’s coal output rising 8.7% to 3.52 billion tonnes, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The country also imported 182 million tonnes, overtaking Japan to become the world’s largest coal importer. China now accounts for half of all coal consumption.

This debate aims to explore coal’s growing role in global energy supply from the perspectives of the EU, a key coal-importing region, and Indonesia, a key coal-exporting country where coal is also needed to meet the legitimate electricity needs of the world’s fourth most populous country.

Topics covered will include climate policy, fuel poverty, economic development, prospects for coal supply and the role of clean coal technologies in sustainable development.