Surfaced-mined coal appears “better for the climate” than the average natural gas and all coal appears beneficial over LNG.

Spica Retweeted

ちょっとおもしろい論文。採掘からの収支を見ると、天然ガスより露天掘りの石炭のほうが炭素排出少ないし、そもそも最新の石炭火力は二酸化炭素も回収しやすいし、やみくもに石炭潰ししないほうがいいのでは、とのこと。https://t.co/ht05ir5q3I

— Hiroo Yamagata (@hiyori13) December 20, 2021

Coal and gas together account for 50% of primary energy and 60% of electricity. Therefore, the authors examine the global warming potential for both fuels. The surprising conclusion is that surfaced-mined coal appears “better for the climate” than the average natural gas and all coal appears beneficial over LNG. Therefore, current CO2-only reduction policies and CO2 taxes are leading to misguided consequences and the switch from coal to gas, especially LNG, will not have the desired impact of reducing predicted future global warming, quite the contrary.