tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/past-present-and-future-of-coal-28110/articlesPast, present and future of coal – The Conversation2016-06-16T20:05:13Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/605452016-06-16T20:05:13Z2016-06-16T20:05:13ZInfographic: The state of coal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126935/original/image-20160616-15092-r11zfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coal is the biggest source of electricity. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Coal image from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>As the world moves to combat climate change, it’s increasingly doubtful that coal will continue to be a viable energy source, because of its high greenhouse gas emissions. But coal played a vital role in the Industrial Revolution and continues to fuel some of the world’s largest economies. This series looks at <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/past-present-and-future-of-coal">coal’s past, present and uncertain future</a>.</em></p>
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From formation to export, the key facts and figures.Reema Rattan, Global Commissioning EditorJames Whitmore, Deputy Editor: Arts + Culture, The ConversationEmil Jeyaratnam, Data + Interactives Editor, The ConversationWes Mountain, Social Media + Visual Storytelling EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/603282016-06-16T20:05:11Z2016-06-16T20:05:11ZWill climate and emissions targets really curb China’s coal consumption? Only time will tell<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126900/original/image-20160616-15108-55uxt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">China's coal future is up in the air. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Coal image from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>As the world moves to combat climate change, it’s increasingly doubtful that coal will continue to be a viable energy source, because of its high greenhouse gas emissions. But coal played a vital role in the Industrial Revolution and continues to fuel some of the world’s largest economies. This series looks at <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/past-present-and-future-of-coal">coal’s past, present and uncertain future</a>.</em></p>
<p>Something remarkable happened in China in 2014. China’s coal consumption - the <a href="http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/KeyCoalTrends.pdf">highest in the world</a> - appeared to <a href="http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/statistical-review-of-world-energy.html">stabilise</a> for the first time in 16 years. Many commentators proclaimed a new era for China’s energy mix and perhaps even the <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/China_new_normal_web1.pdf">beginning</a> of the demise of coal in China. </p>
<p>As China is the world’s <a href="http://www.wri.org/resources/data-sets/cait-country-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data">largest greenhouse gas emitter</a>, this was heralded as good news for the climate. </p>
<p>But the future is rather more uncertain. China is a major regional power with a major energy economy. Its primary energy consumption has grown by more than <a href="http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/statistical-review-of-world-energy/downloads.html">500%</a> over the past 30 years. China overtook the United States as the world’s <a href="http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/statistical-review-of-world-energy/downloads.html">largest primary energy consumer</a> in 2010.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, the world has been watching the role of coal in China’s energy development with considerable interest over the past few decades. </p>
<h2>Twin threats: pollution and climate change</h2>
<p>In 2010, China released its <a href="http://www.britishchamber.cn/sites/default/files/full-translation-5-yr-plan-2011-2015.doc">12th Five-Year Plan</a> (FYP), the country’s defining economic plan for 2011-15. It fundamentally changed China’s approach to energy and climate policies. </p>
<p>Instead of broad goals and statements, the plan shifted to <a href="http://www.wri.org/blog/2015/09/china%E2%80%99s-climate-policies-how-have-they-performed-and-where-do-they-need-go">specific policy instruments aimed at reducing emissions</a>. It was driven in no small part by <a href="http://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/chinas-climate-change-policies-actors-and-drivers">domestic environmental concerns</a> centred on smog, air and water pollution. </p>
<p>The 12th FYP <a href="http://www.britishchamber.cn/sites/default/files/full-translation-5-yr-plan-2011-2015.doc">established binding targets</a> to reduce energy intensity by 16%, reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions intensity (emissions per unit of GDP) by 17%, and increase the proportion of non-fossil fuels in the primary energy mix to 11.4% – all by 2015.</p>
<p>These targets were reinforced by the historic <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/09/25/us-china-joint-presidential-statement-climate-change">US-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change</a> in 2014.</p>
<p>Through the announcement, and its <a href="http://www.carbonbrief.org/paris-o2015-tracking-country-climate-pledges">pledge</a> ahead of the Paris climate summit in December 2015, China promised to peak in CO₂ emissions around 2030 (and try to peak earlier), cut emissions intensity by 60-65% of the 2005 level, and source around 20% of its primary energy consumption from non-fossil fuels by 2030. Provided that economic growth is limited to 5.5% (China’s economy grew by <a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-6-9-gdp-growth-rate-is-not-the-hard-landing-feared-and-australia-can-benefit-53370">6.9% in 2015</a>), China’s emissions in 2030 would return to close to 2005 levels.</p>
<p>After the Paris Agreement, China announced its <a href="https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/8734-Climate-energy-and-China-s-13th-Five-Year-Plan-in-graphics">13th Five-Year Plan</a>, covering 2016-20. With a focus on capping energy consumption to within 5 billion tonnes of coal equivalent (capping overall energy use, not only coal use) by 2020 and addressing air pollution, energy intensity will be reduced by 15%, CO₂ emissions intensity will fall by 18%, and the proportion of non-fossil fuels will increase to 15%.</p>
<h2>What does this mean for coal?</h2>
<p>BP’s 2016 Energy Outlook shows <a href="http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/energy-outlook-2035/country-and-regional-insights/china-insights.html">China’s fuel mix is changing</a>. The share of coal in primary energy is projected to fall from 66% in 2014 to 47% by 2035. Demand for coal is likely to peak in 2027 and then fall by 0.3% each year over the next seven years. </p>
<p>To compensate for China’s reduced reliance on coal, the share of natural gas is expected to more than double, with the share of non-fossil fuels also increasing rapidly to bridge the gap.</p>
<p>One interesting question is what does this mean for coal-fired power infrastructure in China?</p>
<p><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wene.177/full">Two main drivers</a> influence the building of new power plants.</p>
<p>The first is growth in future electricity demand. This is influenced by population growth and the intensification of energy use in developing economies, such as China.</p>
<p>The second is “business-as-usual retirement” of infrastructure. This is driven largely by regulatory compliance and competitiveness in the electricity market, as well as a preference to shift to low-carbon sources to assist in meeting emissions reduction targets.</p>
<p>Most <a href="http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/energy-technology-perspectives-2014_5k3w64p2wz25.pdf?contentType=%2fns%2fBook%2c%2fns%2fOECDBook&itemId=%2fcontent%2fbook%2fenergy_tech-2014-en&mimeType=application%2fpdf&containerItemId=%2fcontent%2fserial%2f20792603&accessItemIds=">power plants approaching retirement age</a> are located mainly in the USA and Europe, as you can see in the <a href="http://power.globaldata.com/">chart below</a>. China, on the other hand, has a remarkably young fleet with a median age of <a href="http://power.globaldata.com/">10 years</a>. </p>
<p>And this is where the dilemma emerges. Very few plants are approaching the age of natural retirement in China, even by 2030 when emissions are scheduled to peak.</p>
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<p>Given the age of coal-fired infrastructure in China, it doesn’t appear as though business-as-usual retirements will drive a dramatic reduction in China’s coal use.</p>
<h2>Increasing climate action</h2>
<p>Of course the pledges announced prior to Paris are only part of the story. The Paris Agreement aims to hold warming to well below 2°C and attempt to limit warming to 1.5°C. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.iccgov.org/en/iccgstudies/assessing-the-indcs-a-comparison-of-different-approaches/">Estimates</a> suggest the Paris pledges would result in warming of 2.7-3.6°C. Accordingly, much greater emissions-reduction efforts are likely to be required to hold global average temperature increase to <a href="https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/l09r01.pdf">less than 2°C</a>.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wene.177/full">recent study</a> looked at the implications for global coal-fired power investments (operating, committed and planned) for a 2°C average temperature rise scenario (in line with the International Energy Agency’s global mitigation scenario).</p>
<p>The investments in recent and new coal-fired power plant capacity are dominated by expansion in Asia, in particular China and India. A global reduction in coal-fired power infrastructure to shift from the business-as-usual scenario to the 2°C mitigation scenario unsurprisingly would require China to make a significant contribution to this <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wene.177/full">reduction</a>.</p>
<p>Accordingly, China would need not only to reverse its growth trend in installed capacity by 2030, but also decommission some 400 gigawatts of coal-fired infrastructure, approximately equivalent to a third of its <a href="http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/energy-technology-perspectives-2014_5k3w64p2wz25.pdf?contentType=%2fns%2fBook%2c%2fns%2fOECDBook&itemId=%2fcontent%2fbook%2fenergy_tech-2014-en&mimeType=application%2fpdf&containerItemId=%2fcontent%2fserial%2f20792603&accessItemIds=">capacity</a>, before the end of its useful life.</p>
<p>The implication is that non-OECD countries including China could be asked to carry more of the economic burden to transform the global energy system because these countries will need to prematurely retire cost-effective coal power assets. Questions about whether this is realistic and around compensation for the cost of such early retirements may influence the prospects of addressing the risk of climate change.</p>
<p>A second driver of China’s coal consumption trend is the push to reduce air pollution, in particular damaging pollution known as PM2.5. While BP’s <a href="https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/pdf/energy-economics/energy-outlook-2016/bp-energy-outlook-2016.pdf">Energy Outlook for 2016</a> suggests that this will drive the switch from coal to natural gas, in the absence of serious constraints on carbon emissions, energy security drivers may favour the use of coal-derived synthetic natural gas (syngas or SNG). </p>
<p>While this reduces air pollution, the production process is very <a href="http://people.duke.edu/%7Ecy42/SNG.pdf">carbon-intensive</a>. China has made ambitious plans to develop this technology. </p>
<p>With the release of the 13th FYP earlier this year, the energy sector was expecting a limit on total coal consumption and cuts to coal production in order to peak emissions by 2030. </p>
<p>Yet while some <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-energy-coal-idUSKCN0VV0U5">production cuts</a> have been announced, precisely how this will play out for coal-fired power infrastructure and actual coal consumption remains to be seen.</p>
<p><em>Caroline Stott, UQ Energy Initiative Research Officer, contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Greig owns shares in Rio Tinto, BHP and Wesfarmers. He is chief investigator on a grant provided by ACALET (Australian Coal Association Lowe Emissions Technologies Ltd).</span></em></p>China’s crackdown on pollution and climate change may yet see coal use fall - but it’s no certainty.Chris Greig, Professor & UQ Energy Initiative Director, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/541822016-06-15T20:10:18Z2016-06-15T20:10:18ZCarbon capture and storage is unlikely to save coal in the long run<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126664/original/image-20160615-22416-yccck7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Carbon capture and storage can clean up coal power. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Coal image from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>As the world moves to combat climate change, it’s increasingly doubtful that coal will continue to be a viable energy source, because of its high greenhouse gas emissions. But coal played a vital role in the Industrial Revolution and continues to fuel some of the world’s largest economies. This series looks at coal’s past, present and uncertain future.</em></p>
<p>Coal is the greatest <a href="http://www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/15/hl-full.htm">contributor to climate change</a> of all our energy sources. This means that if the world acts to limit global warming to well below 2°C, <a href="https://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/WEO2015SpecialReportonEnergyandClimateChange.pdf">coal will likely be constrained</a> – unless its greenhouse gas emissions can be removed. </p>
<p>One of the great hopes of the industry is carbon capture and storage (CCS), a way to burn coal, remove the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and store it safely away from the atmosphere. While there have been several breakthroughs, the technology remains expensive. </p>
<p>Advances in energy technologies mean that adding CCS doesn’t just need to work; it needs to work at a lower cost than its <a href="https://theconversation.com/only-a-mug-punter-would-bet-on-carbon-storage-over-renewables-35920">growing legion of competitors</a>. And while the alternatives are good news for avoiding dangerous climate change, it’s a substantial challenge for the coal industry.</p>
<h2>Capturing carbon</h2>
<p>The current range of CCS technologies can be grouped into “pre-combustion” and “post-combustion” methods. </p>
<p>Pre-combustion methods typically react the carbon in the fuel with high-pressure steam to make hydrogen CO₂. The CO₂ is then separated (captured) from the hydrogen before the hydrogen is burned in the power station to make energy, with the only emissions being water vapour.</p>
<p>Post-combustion technologies try to capture the carbon after it has been burned and becomes CO₂. If the fuel is burned in air, then the CO₂ needs to be separated from the exhaust gas stream which, like air, is mostly composed of nitrogen gas. This is usually done by passing the gas stream through a liquid that dissolves the CO₂ but not the nitrogen. </p>
<p>Another technique, called “oxyfuelling”, separates oxygen out of the air and then uses it to burn the fuel in an atmosphere of oxygen and recycled CO₂. The exhaust gas stream from this process is close enough to pure CO₂ that it can be sent directly to the storage process.</p>
<p>Several options have been explored for storing the carbon. These include the deep ocean, depleted oil and gas wells, deep saline aquifers, as manufactured <a href="http://www.greenmaggroup.com/aboutus.htm">mineralised carbonate rock</a>, or as naturally mineralised carbonate by injection into <a href="https://theconversation.com/putting-co2-away-for-good-by-turning-it-into-stone-60688">basalt reservoirs</a>. </p>
<p>Regardless of the technique, the outcomes for coal combustion are similar. The amount of emissions is reduced by 80-100%, while the cost of coal-fired electricity generation increases by at least the same amount. </p>
<p>These costs come from building the capture plant, CO₂ transport pipelines and the sequestration plant. <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-latest-bad-news-on-carbon-capture-from-coal-power-plants-higher-costs-51440">More than double</a> the amount of coal must be burned to make up for the energy cost of the CCS process itself. </p>
<p>When CCS was first considered as an emissions solution, competition from renewables, such as solar and wind, was weak. Costs were high and production volumes were negligible. </p>
<h2>How cheap?</h2>
<p>In the 1990s, many believed that renewables (other than existing hydro, geothermal and biomass for heating) might never be able to replace coal cheaply. The future of energy was going to be a centralised grid, rather than the distributed power models being discussed today, and there were only two widely backed horses in the technology race: CCS and nuclear. </p>
<p>But the early part of this century has seen an energy revolution in both renewables and fossil fuels. Among <a href="http://www.irena.org/documentdownloads/publications/irena_re_power_costs_2014_report.pdf">renewables</a>, <a href="https://www.iea.org/media/workshops/2014/solarelectricity/bnef2lcoeofpv.pdf">solar</a> and wind have both taken enormous strides in reducing production costs and building manufacturing scale. </p>
<p>For fossil fuels, the expansion in gas pipeline infrastructure, the development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipping and the growth of both conventional and unconventional gas production have encouraged fuel switching from coal in European and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/02/17/why-the-u-s-is-cutting-carbon-emissions-no-matter-what-happens-with-the-supreme-court/">US markets</a> in particular.</p>
<p>Trying to compare the costs of different types of electricity can be tricky. Power stations require capital to build and have heavy financing, operational and decommissioning costs. Nuclear and fossil fuel power stations also have to buy fuel.</p>
<p>Analysts use the term “levelised cost of electricity (LCOE)” to aggregate and describe this combination of factors for different methods of electricity generation.</p>
<p>A significant challenge for coal and CCS is that the LCOE for wind and solar at a comparable scale is already <a href="http://www.irena.org/documentdownloads/publications/irena_re_power_costs_2014_report.pdf">competitive</a> with coal generation in many places. This is because the cost of manufacturing has fallen as production has increased. </p>
<p>While this seems not to bode well for coal and CCS, there’s a caveat: a coal with CCS power station makes power when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow.</p>
<p>It’s easier for wind and solar to compete when traditional fossil fuel power stations are there to back them up, but not so easy when renewables become dominant generators and the cost of storage needs to be taken into account to ensure a consistent supply. </p>
<h2>A game changer?</h2>
<p>That was until batteries came along and offered the ability to store renewable energy for when the sun doesn’t shine. There is considerable hype around the entry of the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-02/tesla-powerwall-what-it-means-for-australia's-energy/7130392">Tesla Powerwall</a> into the home electricity market. </p>
<p>But that is only one of numerous home battery solutions from the likes of <a href="http://www.samsungsdi.com/ess/energy-storage-system-application.html">Samsung</a>, <a href="http://www.lg.com/global/business/ess/about/lg-ess/index.html">LG</a>, <a href="http://www.bosch.com/en/com/sustainability/products/renewable_energies/energy_storage/energy_storage_systems.html">Bosch</a>, <a href="http://au.panasonic.com.au/News+and+views/News/2015/May/Panasonic+announces+partnership+to+install+battery+storage+technology+in+2015">Panasonic</a>, <a href="http://newsroom.enphase.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=935387">Enphase</a> and others. All are designed to store excess solar power for use at night. </p>
<p>The emerging breakthrough of these products is the price, which is bringing batteries into the realm of competition with centralised electricity generation.</p>
<p>While a battery won’t take your family entirely off-grid at first, such batteries mean most suburban households can become largely energy-independent. They need only top up from the grid now and then when a run of cloudy days comes along during the shorter days of winter. </p>
<p>In the longer term, there’s a clear pathway for most homes to disconnect completely from the grid, should battery prices continue to fall. </p>
<h2>Why are batteries a threat?</h2>
<p>The reason that batteries can compete with centralised generation is because the cost of transmission and distribution from a coal-fired power station to your home is considerable.</p>
<p>These costs are not normally considered in the LCOE calculations, because it is assumed that all power generators have access to the same, centralised electricity grid. </p>
<p>But a battery in your home means that these costs are largely avoided. That makes home energy generation and storage much more competitive with traditional power generation in the longer term. </p>
<p>For developing nations without a strong centralised grid it also means that energy systems can be built incrementally, without large investments in infrastructure. </p>
<p>This is an ill wind for the competitive future of CCS, which depends on the centralised generation model and a lack of low-cost competitors to stay viable.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean the coal industry should give up on CCS. Having a range of options for a low-emission future is a good thing. Affordable energy is at the heart of our modern civilisation and standards of living.</p>
<p>CCS may also lay the foundations for Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), one of the few (albeit expensive) technologies with the potential to recoup significant amounts of CO₂ from the atmosphere. But this points to a renewable biomass future, not a coal future. </p>
<p>The odds that CCS will keep coal alive as an industry into the future are getting longer each year.</p>
<p>What we are seeing is the start of the great transition from fossil fuel mining to manufacturing as the basis for our energy systems. It’s not dominant yet, but you would be starting to get very nervous if you were betting against it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54182/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gary Ellem has received funding in the past from state and federal governments for research into renewable energy technologies, cleantech industry development and social licence in the Australian unconventional gas sector.
He has previously consulted to the solar, bioenergy and mining sectors. </span></em></p>Despite advances in technology, carbon capture and storage could be unsettled by renewable upstarts.Gary Ellem, Conjoint Academic in Sustainability, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/546572016-06-14T20:09:34Z2016-06-14T20:09:34ZIndia is hedging its bets on coal to bring power to the people<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126468/original/image-20160614-29216-14b7if3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">India is the world's third-largest coal producer, but also the second-largest importer</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Coal image from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>As the world moves to combat climate change, it’s increasingly doubtful that coal will continue to be a viable energy source, because of its high greenhouse gas emissions. But coal played a vital role in the Industrial Revolution and continues to fuel some of the world’s largest economies. This series looks at coal’s past, present and uncertain future.</em></p>
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<p>More than a fifth of India’s population lacks <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS">access to electricity</a>, posing a major development challenge. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised to bring affordable access to electricity to all of these people by 2019. </p>
<p>While Modi has committed to increasing renewable generation, India is also increasing coal production. India is the world’s third-largest coal producer and its second-largest coal importer. </p>
<p>This is creating a growing tension between development and India’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change. </p>
<h2>Transforming economies</h2>
<p>The world economy is changing faster than ever and Asia is at the forefront of its transformation. The growth, led by China over the past decade and more recently by India, shows that Asia has significant progress to make. But there are enormous challenges in realising the dream of the Asian Century. </p>
<p>For instance, in India, 22% of the population is living below the <a href="http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/country/statistics/tags/india">national poverty level</a>. Only 47% of the households <a href="http://unicef.in/Uploads/Resources/CPAP_2013-17%281%29.pdf">have access to a toilet</a>, while 105 million people lack <a href="http://unicef.in/Story/1125/Water--Environment-and-Sanitation">access to clean drinking water</a> and 240 million people don’t have <a href="http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/WEB_WorldEnergyOutlook2015ExecutiveSummaryEnglishFinal.pdf">access to electricity</a>.</p>
<p>But there is also bright news for India. The country’s economy is growing quickly and will soon surpass China’s. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in its recent interim economic outlook, has predicted that <a href="http://profit.ndtv.com/news/budget/article-indian-economy-to-grow-robustly-at-7-4-next-fiscal-oecd-1278895">India’s Gross Domestic Product</a> (GDP) will grow by 7.4% in 2016 and 7.3% in 2017.</p>
<p>In his electoral victory speech, Modi promised a “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/hindu-nationalist-narendra-modis-party-heads-to-victory-in-indian-polls/2014/05/16/c6eccaea-4b20-46db-8ca9-af4ddb286ce7_story.html">shining India</a>” of new hopes and aspirations. The reality, however, is far more complex. </p>
<p>Resources are the focal point of this tension, particularly the increasing demand for energy. India’s energy demands will increase significantly, driven by rapid urbanisation, improved electricity access and an expanding manufacturing base.</p>
<p>Energy security is closely linked with <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/environment-institute/publications/feeding-india/">food and water security</a>, which are the backbones of the nation and a growing challenge in the face of climate change. </p>
<p>Indian government and businesses are addressing these issues by managing supply, increasing production of coal-based thermal plants and growing renewable energy sources. Coal supplies around <a href="http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Indias_energy_security/$FILE/India-s_energy_security.pdf">half of India’s total energy supply</a>.</p>
<p>Will constraints on resources, particularly access to affordable coal, disrupt India’s economic growth?</p>
<h2>What role for coal?</h2>
<p>India is the world’s third-largest producer of coal for electricity. While production has increased over the past few decades, the pace of growth has been insufficient to meet demand. Consequently, India has become more reliant on imported coal. </p>
<p>India’s thermal coal imports have increased from almost zero in the 1990s to having it overtake Japan as the world’s second-largest importer in 2013. The Indian government seems to promise adequate supply to its coal-fired electricity generation capacity by expanding its coal production as well as encouraging imports. </p>
<p>For example, the power and coal minister, Piyush Goyal, stated last year that the nation would step up domestic production and stop imports of coal for electricity (not coal for manufacturing) by 2017. However, <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-qanda-will-india-no-longer-buy-australian-coal-46256">growing economic growth and population may not allow this</a>. </p>
<p>The Modi government’s plans to give access to affordable electricity to all Indians within the next five years cannot be achieved without importing coal. During the recent visit of India’s energy minister to Australia, the minister admitted that <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/indias-energy-minister-piyush-goyal-fires-up-coal-hopes/news-story/695389b2da2359b418e9ac00b6b19b06">the country will need more coal imports</a>, possibly including from Australia. </p>
<p>Although in the short term the case for <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-case-for-australian-coal-in-india-is-weakening-43694">Australian coal in India may be weakening due to the current global economic slowdown</a>, India will have to rely on imported coal at least in the immediate future to increase its economic growth. This is reflected by the case of Adani, which is trying to develop a huge Carmichael coal mine in Queensland to supply India with <a href="http://www.australianmining.com.au/News/Massive-$16-5-billion-Carmichael-coal-mine-approve">thermal coal</a>.</p>
<p>India’s domestic production of coal is constrained for a variety of reasons. <a href="http://www.adanimining.com/indian-coal-distribution">India’s coal reserves</a> are not only insufficient but also unevenly distributed among regions. </p>
<p>A further challenge related to the energy sector is a lack of private participation. Until 2014 coal mining was allowed only for government and private companies directly using coal for electricity and manufacturing.</p>
<p>The Modi government amended this rule to enable private companies to <a href="http://www.prsindia.org/billtrack/the-coal-mines-special-provisions-bill-2014-3489/">mine coal for sale in the open market</a>. This may help create a more favourable coal market for both foreign and domestic investors and increase domestic production.</p>
<p>Although the Modi government is keen to increase production of domestic coal mines through privatisation, challenges still remain, such as pollution. The costs associated with pollution from coal-fired power stations are very large, as we can see from China. </p>
<p>China’s health minister from 2007-13, Chen Zhu, stated that lung cancer is now the leading cause of death in China as a result of pollution. This required China to spend an extra US$278 billion over five years to control pollution, mainly caused by coal-fired power plants. </p>
<p>India will have to tackle a very similar situation in the future. Hence, coal energy consumption is likely to be one of the defining issues of India’s economy in the 21st century, particularly the way in which the nation simultaneously addresses climate change and access to energy.</p>
<p><em>This is the fifth article in our series on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/past-present-and-future-of-coal">past, present and future of coal</a>. Look out for others in the coming days.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54657/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tapan Sarker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>India is at a crossroads: how to bring electricity to millions of people without power, while also dealing with climate change?Tapan Sarker, Senior Lecturer, Department of International Business & Asian Studies, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/541632016-06-13T20:10:42Z2016-06-13T20:10:42ZIs coal the only way to deal with energy poverty in developing economies?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125332/original/image-20160606-26003-1hjtcr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coal is a relatively cheap, abundant and well-established source of energy.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/137286426@N06/23435415794/">Ray Hornsay/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>As the world moves to combat climate change, it’s increasingly doubtful that coal will continue to be a viable energy source, because of its high greenhouse gas emissions. But coal played a vital role in the Industrial Revolution and continues to fuel some of the world’s largest economies. This series looks at coal’s past, present and uncertain future.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The availability of efficient and reliable energy for industrial, agricultural and household use is critical for productivity growth and improvement in human wellbeing. But many people across the planet live in a state of energy poverty. </p>
<p>The energy-poor are people living without electricity services and clean energy – for cooking, lighting, heating and other daily needs. According to the World Bank, <a href="http://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/what-you-need-know-about-energy-and-poverty">one-third</a> of the world’s economies have severe energy crises and about <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/video/2014/10/14/ending-energy-poverty">1.1 billion</a> people lack access to electricity. </p>
<p>A large population in developing economies, particularly in Africa, relies on traditional biomass sources of energy that themselves cause problems, such as severe deforestation and carbon pollution. What’s more, many inhabitants of these countries face power outages of up to 20 hours a day. </p>
<p>An economical and sustainable energy source for deprived populations is clearly needed.</p>
<h2>Enter coal</h2>
<p>Coal is a relatively cheap, abundant and well-established source of energy, but it’s also a major source of carbon pollution. Hence the controversy about whether burning coal can end energy poverty in the coming decades. </p>
<p>In the past, coal has occupied a significant share in the energy mix of developing economies, but it has been under attack due to its emissions, which include sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide. </p>
<p>Amid calls for the use of efficient and clean technologies for electricity generation, the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal has already embarked on dynamic pathways to achieve energy efficiency and sustainability and combat carbon emissions. China’s initiatives for boosting the use of renewable energy sources, cutting the use of <a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-war-on-pollution-could-leave-aussie-coal-out-in-the-cold-31783">high-ash coal</a> and <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/mining-and-resources/coal-hit-again-as-china-resumes-import-tariffs-20141009-113tkq.html">resuming import tariffs on coal</a> have reshaped the global energy mix landscape.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125335/original/image-20160606-25992-si3oie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125335/original/image-20160606-25992-si3oie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125335/original/image-20160606-25992-si3oie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125335/original/image-20160606-25992-si3oie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125335/original/image-20160606-25992-si3oie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125335/original/image-20160606-25992-si3oie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125335/original/image-20160606-25992-si3oie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Coal is a relatively cheap, abundant and well-established source of energy, but it’s a major source of carbon pollution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/senor_codo/352250460/">Señor Codo/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Likewise, other developing countries including India are changing their energy mix by shifting their focus to renewables to reduce their reliance on coal-based energy. Although more than <a href="http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/media/weowebsite/2015/IndiaEnergyOutlook_WEO2015.pdf">50% of India’s new electricity generation</a> is expected to be met by renewables, the country still needs to rely on coal-based generation to meet expanding demand.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/29/world-bank-coal-cure-poverty-rejects">World Bank</a> has already paused funding for new coal power generation except for exceptional cases, leaving a question mark over coal as a cure for global energy poverty. </p>
<p>But the slowdown in world coal demand is partly due to China’s structural shift away from construction and export-led manufacturing, which has significantly reduced coal prices. This has, in turn, slashed revenues of many exporting countries. And the collapse in prices is resulting in the <a href="http://oilprice.com/Energy/Coal/The-Decline-Of-The-Coal-Industry-Is-Long-Term-And-Irreversible.html">closure of many mining businesses</a> as companies are unable to recover production costs.</p>
<p>Still, energy-poor developing economies need coal as a cheap and readily available resource to provide electricity for their growing populations unless they find a way to completely replace it with alternative renewable sources.</p>
<h2>Current and future trends</h2>
<p>Many developing economies are facing a huge shortfall in electricity and are expanding their energy production capacity. This situation is likely to intensify as the world population increases. By the end of 2030, developing countries will need about <a href="http://www.se4all.org/sites/default/files/l/2013/09/Special_Excerpt_of_WEO_2010.pdf">950 terawatt-hours</a> electricity to meet their energy needs. </p>
<p>Consider India, which has the second-largest population in the world. It accounts for only 6% of global energy consumption and has <a href="http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/WEB_WorldEnergyOutlook2015ExecutiveSummaryEnglishFinal.pdf">240 million</a> people without access to electricity. With another <a href="http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/WEB_WorldEnergyOutlook2015ExecutiveSummaryEnglishFinal.pdf">315 million</a> Indians expected to move to urban areas in the next few decades, the country’s energy demand is likely to surge in the coming years.</p>
<p>Neighbouring Pakistan is facing a <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/pakistans-interminable-energy-crisis-there-any-way-out">serious energy crisis</a> and many people in that country are spending more than 12 hours each day without electricity. The new Pak-China economic corridor has created an opportunity for the country to use indigenous Thar coal reserves to generate 6,600 megawatts (MW) power, expanding its installed capacity of <a href="http://www.pc.gov.pk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Ch18-Energy.pdf">24,829 MW</a> by 25%.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tsp-data-portal.org/Breakdown-of-Electricity-Generation-by-Energy-Source#tspQvChart">According to global statistics</a>, coal contributed to 39% of the world’s energy mix in 2014. The <a href="http://www.netl.doe.gov/File%20Library/Research/Coal/Reference%20Shelf/role_of_coal.pdf">World Coal Association</a> claims that about 1 billion people around the globe have received electricity from coal-powered energy generation. And that the industry has created 7 million jobs worldwide. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125334/original/image-20160606-25985-u5g7m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125334/original/image-20160606-25985-u5g7m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125334/original/image-20160606-25985-u5g7m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125334/original/image-20160606-25985-u5g7m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125334/original/image-20160606-25985-u5g7m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125334/original/image-20160606-25985-u5g7m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125334/original/image-20160606-25985-u5g7m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A large population in developing economies is reliant on traditional biomass sources of energy that themselves cause problems.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/colleenchoi/8375945124/">Colleen/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many developing economies, including China and India, are connecting <a href="http://www.netl.doe.gov/File%20Library/Research/Coal/Reference%20Shelf/role_of_coal.pdf">millions of their inhabitants to coal-based electricity systems</a>. Over the last two decades, China has been able to electrify about <a href="http://www.netl.doe.gov/File%20Library/Research/Coal/Reference%20Shelf/role_of_coal.pdf">700 million</a> households through coal-fired energy production.</p>
<p>India is still meeting the majority of its energy demand from coal-fired electricity generation and was among the world’s three <a href="http://ieefa.org/fact-checking-the-iea-the-worlds-three-largest-coal-importers-are-importing-less/">largest coal importers in 2015</a>. </p>
<h2>Prospects of coal energy</h2>
<p>Energy poverty is a major human and environmental crisis. A balanced energy mix with a high degree of physical safety, low environmental hazards and sustainable supply prospects is essential for poverty alleviation and energy security. </p>
<p>But, in the face of competing alternative energy sources, the role of the coal industry in energy poverty alleviation has become even more challenging.</p>
<p>While renewable energy sources are in their infancy and facing many uncertainties, developing economies have a long way to go before they can completely abandon fossil fuel energy sources. Indeed, these countries need major structural reforms and risk-tolerant investment capital in the renewable sector if the twin goals of reduced carbon emissions and the elimination of energy poverty are to be achieved.</p>
<p>All that means the coal industry will potentially remain a major part of the world’s energy mix. But it needs drastic measures to produce clean and efficient energy if it is to play a role in energy security and poverty alleviation without the adverse environmental effects that threaten to introduce other risks to water, global climate and food security.</p>
<p><em>The author would like to thank Associate Professor John Steen and Dr Jo-Anne Everingham for their valuable comments on this article.</em></p>
<p><em>This is the third article in our series on the past, present and future of coal. Look out for others over the next week or two.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54163/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shabbir Ahmad does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Millions of people live without access to electricity. Now it’s a battle between coal and renewables to bring cheap power.Shabbir Ahmad, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian Institue of Busines and Economics, The University of Queensland, Australia, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/533712016-06-09T20:10:08Z2016-06-09T20:10:08ZCoal and industrial relations: how miners secured workers’ rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125470/original/image-20160607-31930-yxxw2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Miners were fired by a sense of solidarity but also by dangerous working conditions, which produced high death and injury rates.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/j3net/280320886/">Janet Lindenmuth/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>As the world moves to combat climate change, coal is becoming increasingly vilified for its greenhouse gas emissions. But coal played a vital role in the Industrial Revolution, and continues to fuel some of the world’s largest economies. Our series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/past-present-and-future-of-coal">examines coal’s past, present, and increasingly uncertain future</a>, and today we turn to its role in the development of industrial relations.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Coal mining, major industrial disputes, and the coal miner himself, are iconic representations of the industrial age. Demand for coal came from expanding urban centres as a result of the Industrial Revolution, and new coal-fired factories, mills and furnaces.</p>
<p>Miners were among the first workers to organise into trade unions from the middle of the 1700s, battling a lack of legal recognition and resistance from the mine owners. </p>
<p>By the 19th century, there were numerous attempts to combine and organise what were often local trade unions. By the beginning of the 20th century, lasting national bodies of miners had been formed in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States.</p>
<h2>Origins of mining communities</h2>
<p>Small pit-top communities emerging in the 1800s created bonds of association that flowed into newly established trade unions. Mines tended to concentrate in distinct regions following coal seams. </p>
<p>Miners were fired by a sense of solidarity but also by dangerous working conditions, which produced high death and injury rates. Proper records were not kept in the early period, but in the United Kingdom, for example, at least <a href="http://www.cmhrc.co.uk/site/disasters/index.html">90,000 miners died</a> between 1850 and 1914.</p>
<p>Disasters were common in the industry. Their collective impact and lasting grief created a long tradition of anger over working conditions. The prevalence of occupational diseases – especially respiratory ailments – further encouraged union formation, and was a rallying call for organisation and political change.</p>
<p>Starting in the late 19th century, mechanisation not only reduced the total number of miners needed to raise a tonne of coal, it also introduced new hazards into the workplace. Machines with high-speed moving parts could catch clothing and limbs, causing serious injury or death. </p>
<p>In Australia and the UK, regulation usually followed major disasters. The US mining industry was more lightly regulated and only serious disasters prompted concerted federal government action; a situation that was unfortunately mirrored in other parts of the world. From 1900 to 1947, more than <a href="http://www.msha.gov/stats/centurystats/coalstats.asp">90,000 US miners died at work</a>. </p>
<h2>Industrial conflict</h2>
<p>By the late 19th century, the industry was characterised by uncertain profit margins, seasonal shifts in demand, uncertain supply lines, and owners who increasingly resented the rise of unions. </p>
<p>Mine owners were pressing for lower wages or faster work rates, and industrial conflict was common. And as older, more paternalistic forms of management of the early 1800s began to recede, the industry was characterised by major industrial battles. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125472/original/image-20160607-31937-1sasuj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125472/original/image-20160607-31937-1sasuj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125472/original/image-20160607-31937-1sasuj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125472/original/image-20160607-31937-1sasuj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125472/original/image-20160607-31937-1sasuj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125472/original/image-20160607-31937-1sasuj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125472/original/image-20160607-31937-1sasuj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Disasters were common in the mining industry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/oblomberg/14986063305/">Orin Blomberg/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>On the eve of the Great Strikes of the early 1890s in Australia, for instance, there was <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/152596408?selectedversion=NBD11335793">evidence</a> that mine owners, in league with other employer groups, had decided to make a stand against the rising tide of union power. </p>
<p>Miners had joined other workers in asserting the right to form their own associations. They encouraged unions in new secondary industries and in other mines. In places such as the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, coal miners helped workers organise in the new base metal mines of the 1880s, and later in the Newcastle iron and steel industry from 1915.</p>
<p>In the US, there were violent and deadly clashes between miners and state and federal militia including the infamous 1914 <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-ludlow-massacre-still-matters">Ludlow massacre</a> in Colorado, where more than 60 strikers were killed.</p>
<p>In Australia, a seven-week <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/27516355?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">miners strike in 1949</a> over wages and conditions but made worse by Cold War fears, saw federal government intervention and soldiers working in the mines.</p>
<h2>Mining communities</h2>
<p>Miners were also important in the development of the labour parties in Australia and the United Kingdom. </p>
<p>In the 1930s and 1940s, coal-mining communities in Australia, Wales, and England included members of the Communist Party. But the Labour parties were by far the dominant group, and mining communities would supply staunch Labour party politicians for many decades. </p>
<p>There was strict gender division of labour in coal-mining communities with men as breadwinners and women as wives and helpers. If women organised, it was in an “auxiliary” role. </p>
<p>Religion was often an important part of mining communities and this usually took the form of Protestantism that preached an acceptance of one’s fate; hyper religiosity in the face of the deadening weight of wage labour and the daily possibility of injury or death prevailed.</p>
<p>By the 1950s and 1960s, unionised coal miners had won better pay and conditions. In conditions of low unemployment and with the prestige garnered by their national organisations, coal miners had significant industrial power. </p>
<p>The withdrawal of their labour could bring an economy to a standstill as coal was required for factory machinery and transport. But towards the end of this long boom period, coal began to lose out to oil and gas. </p>
<h2>The radical miner?</h2>
<p>There is a common misconception that most coal miners were militant socialists. But miners and their communities could be socially conservative moderates who worked within the capitalist system. </p>
<p>Pit-top communities were homogeneous, and solidarity was often enforced through intimidation and exclusion, as well as moral consensus. </p>
<p>Working in a coal mine did not inevitably produce a radical political consciousness. Where strong union organisation was present, it was the result of hard work and efforts to organise members focused on protection rather than revolution.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125471/original/image-20160607-31962-1on317w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125471/original/image-20160607-31962-1on317w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125471/original/image-20160607-31962-1on317w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125471/original/image-20160607-31962-1on317w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125471/original/image-20160607-31962-1on317w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125471/original/image-20160607-31962-1on317w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125471/original/image-20160607-31962-1on317w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Where strong union organisation was present, it was the result of hard work and efforts to organise members focused on protection rather than revolution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/museumwales/4051901421/">Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The UK miners’ strike protesting mine closures in 1984-85 was an occasion when, in the face of strong external threats, communities did come together powerfully. </p>
<p>With long memories of successful miners’ strikes in the early 1970s, Margaret Thatcher’s government embarked on a concerted attack on coal communities. This included plans to call in the military if needed, and reduce the power of the coal miners by encouraging nuclear energy.</p>
<p>But even in this case, the ultimately unsuccessful strike also produced internal dissent, a rival workers’ organisation, and broke the exclusive coverage of the union in mining jobs.</p>
<h2>Recession and globalisation</h2>
<p>Coal mining continued to offer good jobs for working class communities but, increasingly, the jobs were being shifted to the developing world. And miners were losing their industrial and political muscle. </p>
<p>By 2007, there were 41,000 coal miners in the United States <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/encyclopedia-of-us-labor-and-working-class-history-vol-1-a-f-index/oclc/255304832">but only 22% were unionised</a>. Recent <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/peabody-energy-files-for-chapter-11-protection-from-creditors-1460533760">high-profile bankruptcies</a> of major US firms have again highlighted this development.</p>
<p>The centre of the global coal industry is now China. It accounts for 40% of global production; up to <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-11533349">80% of global coal mining fatalities</a>; and no independent union representation. </p>
<p>Away from the spotlight of large mines, informal or artisanal coal mines are important in the developing world. While these small mines are important sources of income for poor communities (especially for women and children), conditions are squalid, safety unregulated and figures on the loss of life or serious fatalities largely unknown.</p>
<p>The reality of climate change has transformed the standing of coal mining. Those on the left were once unfailingly proud of their militant tradition. But as coal became associated with human-induced climate change this became less tenable. </p>
<p>The industry that spawned major unions, heroic though often unsuccessful industrial action, and transformed the political makeup of the UK and Australia, is now increasingly struggling. While the UK has only a handful of operating coal mines, the Australian situation is complicated by the renewed expansion of mining, including coal mining, from 2001.</p>
<p><em>This is the third article in our <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/past-present-and-future-of-coal">series on the past, present and future of coal</a>. Look out for others in the coming days.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53371/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erik Eklund does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Miners were among the first workers to organise into trade unions from the middle of the 1700s, battling a lack of legal recognition and resistance from the mine owners.Erik Eklund, Professor of History, Federation University AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/541072016-06-08T20:07:29Z2016-06-08T20:07:29ZCoal was king of the Industrial Revolution, but not always the path to a modern economy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125318/original/image-20160606-26003-jg38tn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coal powered the machinery and lit what English poet William Blake described as 'dark satanic mills'.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/11223807@N04/6475898683/">Sam Leighton/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>As the world moves to combat climate change, it’s increasingly doubtful that coal will continue to be a viable energy source, because of its high greenhouse gas emissions. But coal played a vital role in the Industrial Revolution and continues to fuel some of the world’s largest economies. This series looks at coal’s past, present and uncertain future, starting today with how it’s formed.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Coal was king of the British Industrial Revolution. As coke, it provided an efficient fuel for reliably turning iron ore into iron. </p>
<p>Cheap iron built the famous bridge across the River Severn at <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/371/gallery/">Ironbridge Gorge</a> in 1781. And the machinery that filled the new factories of the industrial age was built from it. </p>
<p>Coal then powered the machinery and lit what English poet William Blake (1757-1827) described as the “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/poetryseason/poems/jerusalem.shtml">dark satanic mills</a>” that revolutionised cotton manufacture. It powered <a href="http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=7177&img=131713">James Watt’s double-acting piston engine</a>, whose reciprocating motion was converted into rotary motion by means of a crankshaft.</p>
<p>The resulting steamships and railway locomotives reduced the time and cost of bringing coal into factories and taking their products to British export markets across the globe. </p>
<p>Somewhat unexpectedly, the new forms of transport also generated exciting adventures for the British population – the mass seaside resort and the day return. Thus were <a href="https://www.thomascook.com/thomas-cook-history/">Thomas Cook</a> and the British tourism industry born.</p>
<h2>Spoils of coal</h2>
<p>Coal literally powered its way through the British economy of the 19th century – the so-called first industrial nation and workshop of the world. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125316/original/image-20160606-26003-16fcsie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125316/original/image-20160606-26003-16fcsie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125316/original/image-20160606-26003-16fcsie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125316/original/image-20160606-26003-16fcsie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125316/original/image-20160606-26003-16fcsie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125316/original/image-20160606-26003-16fcsie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125316/original/image-20160606-26003-16fcsie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Coal powered James Watt’s piston engine, whose reciprocating motion was converted into rotary motion by means of a crankshaft.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/8259447@N06/27175136812/">Herman Pijpers/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It even fuelled engines that drained water from deeper, less accessible coal mines to keep the supply coming. When steel superseded iron later in the century, coal remained a critical raw material. </p>
<p>Subsequent generations of locomotives and steamships improved transport productivity enormously, and gradually forced owners of stagecoaches, canal boats and sailing ships out of business. Then locomotives, rails, steamships and coal themselves joined the growing range of British exports as other countries sought to mimic the nation’s success. </p>
<p>Ironically, many ageing sailing ships were deployed to carry coal to refuel the growing network of coal bunkering stations around the oceans of the world, a trade that required low cost but no particular urgency. </p>
<p>Fast, reliable ocean liner services contributed to the first era of globalisation in the late 19th century, led by British steamship companies such as Cunard and P&O. They connected Britain across the Atlantic and eastwards, respectively. </p>
<p>Other countries followed suit, especially France, Belgium and Germany, which also had ample supplies of coal. While no one would deny the connection between coal and 19th-century industrialisation, why Britain was the first nation to modernise its economy by exploiting reserves remains highly contested.</p>
<h2>Why Britain?</h2>
<p>A <a href="http://books.wwnorton.com/books/The-Wealth-and-Poverty-of-Nations/">long-held view</a> is that the antecedents of British success can be traced back centuries during which the nation gradually built the preconditions for modern development. Growth-inducing institutions can take many forms, and include a stable political system and the development of commercial law. </p>
<p>The emphasis in Britain was on rising literacy levels and logical reasoning derived from movements that encouraged analytical thinking about the problems of the real world – the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_revolution">scientific revolution</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment">Age of Enlightenment</a>. </p>
<p>These “<a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7426.html">gifts of Athena</a>” (in the words of economic historian Joel Mokyr) facilitated critical and creative thinking about “useful knowledge” necessary to solve growth constraints. In modern parlance, here was the knowledge economy. </p>
<p>This “Eurocentric” view – so-called because it assumes that development in Britain (and Europe) was ahead of the rest of the world – has now been challenged. </p>
<p>In his epochal study, <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6823.html">The Great Divergence</a>, US historian Kenneth Pomeranz used China as a point of comparison to reject the long-term antecedents of the “great divergence” between the economic development of Europe and the rest of the world. </p>
<p>Pomeranz argues that Britain and China had arrived at similar stages of development by the 18th century (“a world of surprising resemblances”, as he calls it) and that they reflected different, but equivalent, measures of progress. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125321/original/image-20160606-26007-13ahb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125321/original/image-20160606-26007-13ahb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125321/original/image-20160606-26007-13ahb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125321/original/image-20160606-26007-13ahb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125321/original/image-20160606-26007-13ahb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125321/original/image-20160606-26007-13ahb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125321/original/image-20160606-26007-13ahb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Railway locomotives, along with steamships, reduced the time and cost of bringing coal into factories and taking their products to British export markets across the globe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/col233/7714715960/">Colleen Galvin/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The divergence was then born of differing abilities to confront an impending global ecological crisis: growing populations faced food and raw material shortages in a low-technology era.</p>
<p>Fortuitously, Britain had coal, conveniently located, and an empire in the New World with the space to produce primary commodities – timber, sugar, cotton and wheat – which, alongside coal, facilitated industrialisation. </p>
<p>Pomeranz concludes that Britain was a “fortunate freak” because its development was due to a short-term windfall from “coal and empire”, rather than to deeper determinants of long-term change. </p>
<h2>Paths to growth</h2>
<p>The publication of The Great Divergence led to a broad and <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/doi/10.1111/aehr.12059/abstract">thought-provoking debate</a> in economic history for a decade and a half. </p>
<p>What we learnt from it – above all else – was that there have been different forms of economic development across the world. And some of these have been pathways less recognisable to Europeanists accustomed to coal and heavy industry as staples, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the measure, of development. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.routledge.com/Labour-Intensive-Industrialization-in-Global-History/Austin-Sugihara/p/book/9781138901148">Other historians</a> have drawn attention to forms of industrialisation, especially in Asia, that have needed more human – and less non-renewable natural – resources. </p>
<p>Now that we are living in an era when coal’s environmental problems have come to the fore, it’s heartening to be reminded that there are other growth paths. </p>
<p>The other relevant insight from the Great Divergence debate is that human agency is vital; there are no immutable lessons of geography or ecology, and no development path is unchanging. </p>
<p>Coal and other resources have always been abundant in many parts of the world. It’s the human ingenuity found in particular societies – however derived – that has created high levels of wellbeing from these natural resources.</p>
<p>Let’s hope we will find a way of maintaining living standards into the future while mitigating the impact of our growth on the environment. </p>
<p><em>This is the second article in our series on the past, present and future of coal. Look out for other pieces over the coming days.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54107/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Ville does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Britain lucked out with its coal deposits – but other nations have developed without coal.Simon Ville, Senior Professor of Economic and Business History, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/543332016-06-07T20:23:51Z2016-06-07T20:23:51ZCoal’s formation is a window on an ancient world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121338/original/image-20160505-14187-1nspnoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coal has provided us with some stunning fossils. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bartb_pt/7669702266/">Bart Bernardes/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>As the world moves to combat climate change, it’s increasingly doubtful that coal will continue to be a viable energy source, because of its high greenhouse gas emissions. But coal played a vital role in the Industrial Revolution and continues to fuel some of the world’s largest economies. This series looks at coal’s past, present and uncertain future, starting today with how it’s formed.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Love it or hate it, coal played a crucial role in launching us into the modern world by fuelling the Industrial Revolution. The byproducts of that role were, of course, the rise of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere and dangerous levels of air pollution in the big coal-fuelled cities. </p>
<p>But despite its insidious influence on the climate and our health, coal has a lesser-known positive side to its otherwise dark soul. It has provided us with some stunning fossils. </p>
<p>Geologists have known for centuries that coal is an accumulation of plant material that, once buried in the Earth’s sedimentary layers, gets compressed by gravity into a denser, compact form. Yet, in recent years, scientists have hotly debated the early phases of coal formation. </p>
<p>The discussion hinges on whether coal formed due to the absence of certain organisms that actively break down the woody tissues of dead trees, or whether other non-biological factors were the reason.</p>
<h2>Contested origins</h2>
<p>Coal starts its cycle of formation with the accumulation of plant material in swamps or bogs. Decaying plant matter that builds up at the bottom of bogs or swamps is called peat. After other sedimentary layers bury the peat deposit, the weight of these sediments builds up and compacts it. </p>
<p>Other chemical and physical processes also alter the peat, including pressures exerted by tectonic forces as continents move and crash into one another. These processes eventually turn the layers of compacted peat into rock we can mine. </p>
<p>Pure black coal, richer in organic carbon and tempered by heat and pressure, is called anthracite. Brown coal, or lignite, is mostly just compressed peat and has more sediment mixed in with plant matter. </p>
<p>Coal has formed as very large deposits at certain times in Earth’s prehistory. So much so that <a href="http://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Daniel-Conybeare">Reverend William Conybeare</a>, the esteemed British geologist of the early 19th century, first named the <a href="http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/carboniferous/carboniferous.php">Carboniferous</a> or “carbon-bearing” period (359 million to 299 million years ago) after the distinctive coal deposits of Britain in his book of 1822. </p>
<p>These great coal swamps formed in what were the Earth’s first great forests. They were home to many varieties of giant amphibians and early reptiles and huge insects, as global oxygen levels were very high at this time.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112271/original/image-20160222-25855-1ja25ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112271/original/image-20160222-25855-1ja25ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112271/original/image-20160222-25855-1ja25ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112271/original/image-20160222-25855-1ja25ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112271/original/image-20160222-25855-1ja25ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112271/original/image-20160222-25855-1ja25ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112271/original/image-20160222-25855-1ja25ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scientific treasures from coal: the Iguanodon dinosaur display in Brussels Museum of Natural Sciences.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brussels Museum of Natural Sciences website</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For many years, scientists believed that coal formed in such large deposits at these times because certain fungi that helped break down the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lignin">lignin, or woody tissues</a>, had not yet evolved. The molecular clock estimates for the appearance of these fungi, called <a href="http://tolweb.org/Agaricomycetes/20535">Agariomycetes</a>, suggest they should appear in the Permian period (299 million to 252 million years ago), after the formation of the vast Carboniferous coal deposits. </p>
<h2>A new theory</h2>
<p>But this doesn’t account for the huge amounts of coal that formed in much later geological periods, such as the Cenozoic, over the past 65 million years. <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/01/13/1517943113.short">And a new study</a>, led by Matthew Nelsen of Stanford University, takes issue with this model, as well as presenting a new hypothesis for coal formation.</p>
<p>The study authors argue that coal formed in the Carboniferous period consists dominantly of plants such as horsetails, or Lycophytes. These trees grew to enormous sizes and their periderm, or outer cuticles of the trunk, lack lignin, so wouldn’t be affected by the absence of lignin-degrading fungi. Their argument points to the biochemical composition of the plants having little to do with how coal accumulates. </p>
<p>The distribution of coal deposits through time is seen in the chart below of the estimated total volume of coal in North America. Large deposits of coal also accumulated during the age of dinosaurs (Mesozoic Era, from 252 million to 66 million years ago) and during the first half of the Cenozoic period (between 66 million and 30 million years ago), well after the predicted first appearance of lignin-degrading fungi. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112270/original/image-20160222-25876-ufn2bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112270/original/image-20160222-25876-ufn2bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112270/original/image-20160222-25876-ufn2bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112270/original/image-20160222-25876-ufn2bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112270/original/image-20160222-25876-ufn2bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112270/original/image-20160222-25876-ufn2bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112270/original/image-20160222-25876-ufn2bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Terrestrial coal accumulation in North America, through time. Note the large peaks during the Carboniferous ‘C’ and early Cenozoic ‘Pg’. Taken from the paper by Nelsen et al. (2016).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prof. Kevin Boyce, with permission.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The paper argues that tectonic factors are the most likely reason such big coal deposits built up at certain times. Large basins fill up with thick sedimentary piles when continents collide and mountain-building occurs. Some really excellent fossils have been found in such coal deposits, although the acidity of coal often dissolves bones. </p>
<p>The best-preserved fossils are those caught in the cleaner sediments laid down by streams between coal seams. Such fossils are routinely uncovered as part of coal mining. Several of the large fossil amphibians that lived in the Carboniferous swamps have been found this way. </p>
<p>A famous site at Nyrany in the Czech Republic was discovered because the director of the natural history museum there had coal delivered to heat his room. Splitting the coal sometimes yielded well-preserved fossils of early amphibians, so he could add scientifically significant specimens to his collections without leaving his office.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most famous fossils found in a coal mine were uncovered at Bernissart in Belgium. Many skeletons, representing 33 individuals of the large plant-eating dinosaur <a href="https://www.naturalsciences.be/en/content/dino-bernissart-iguanodons">Iguanodon</a>, were found there in 1878. These skeletons were among the first complete dinosaurs ever found. </p>
<p>Although coal is much maligned because of its byproducts from combustion, the factors responsible for coal accumulation also give us fossil treasures from the past. To stop coal mining would undoubtedly mean many good fossils remain in the ground. But the long-term health of our planet is a bigger priority. </p>
<p><em>This is the first article in our series on the past, present and future of coal. Look out for others in the coming days.</em></p>
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<p><em>John will be online for an Author Q&A between 2:30 and 3:30pm AEST today (Wednesday 8 June, 2016). Post any questions you have in the comments below.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54333/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Long receives funding from The Australian Research Council </span></em></p>Despite its insidious influence on the climate and our health, coal has a lesser-known positive side to its otherwise dark soul. It has provided us with some stunning fossils.John Long, Strategic Professor in Palaeontology, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.