Less coal was burned in the last three months of 2022 than in any quarter since December 1990.

In the September 2022 quarter, 426,000 tonnes of coal was burned for industry, process heat and electricity generation. This rose slightly to 437,000 tonnes in the last three months of the year.

Those are the lowest levels recorded since March 1989 and December 1990.

Climate change

The latest statistics show the Government is serious about climate change. They also show its plan to reduce demand for coal for process heat and electricity generation is working, Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods says.

"It shows that New Zealanders don't want dirty, polluting and expensive coal either, and are turning to renewables when they can."

Climate Change Minister James Shaw wants the transition away from fossil fuels to speed up.

"If anyone needed a basic rule of thumb for dealing with the climate crisis, it would be this: stop burning fossil fuels.

"It will be clear to anyone that we're better off if we're burning less coal. That most harmful of fuels that we've used since the industrial revolution began. Clearly, we are making progress, but the pace of change needs to pick up until we can end our reliance on fossil fuels, including coal, forever."

Demand drives change

The slump in coal use was led by a reduction in the amount burned for power.

In the midst of winter 2021, when hydro lake levels ran low, the country burned about 600,000 tonnes of coal. That kept electricity running for three months.

This changed dramatically last year. In the last quarter of 2022, just 4,500 tonnes were used for electricity generation. That was the second lowest level across 33 years of records.

The was further aided by a reduction in the amount of coal burned for industry (including milk drying) and coal transformed during steel production.

Woods says the decline in coal-fired power was accompanied by a surge in renewable electricity.

"The renewable share of electricity generation was at its highest level on record for the December 2022 quarter. Electricity generation from wind was the highest on record in the December 2022 quarter, with the wind farm at Turitea North now fully online.

"Electricity generation from wind was up 7.1 percent during the September 2022 quarter and 1.1 percent during the December quarter compared to the same quarters in 2021. Wind generation continues to increase as more wind farms are built."

Coal production from mines in New Zealand also fell last year to the lowest levels since 1990. At the same time, coal imports in the December quarter were at their lowest since 2013.

Source

• NewsRoom

Coal emits about 30 percent more carbon dioxide than the next worst fossil fuels, diesel and petrol.

MBIE's Quarterly Energy Statistics say between January and March this year New Zealand used the same amount of coal to generate electricity as in 2016 and 2017 combined.

Four years ago the country had a 90% rate of renewable energy, but now we have just 70%; and the country is burning imported coal to keep the lights on.

Climate campaigners are appalled we're still burning coal at such a scale - despite Prime Minister's statements that climate action is imperative.

"The issues that have been going on - low hydro-lakes, but also lots of outages and lack of reliability at the gas fields - [mean] we've been burning coal as a back-up fuel," Greenpeace says.

Energy Minister Megan Woods says our reliance on fossil fuel for electricity generation during dry hydrological years is the reason the government is investigating the NZ Battery project.

"Being able to store more renewable energy like wind and solar is key to a low-emissions electricity system, would encourage even more investment in renewables and provide more opportunities for the transport and industrial sectors to switch to cleaner energy use," she says.

Despite evidence against the use of fossil fuels, not everyone is in favour of dispensing with coal. They say it's practical and we'll be using it for decades to come.

Westland mayor Bruce Smith thinks coal will be around for some time as a backup energy source.

"It's easy to talk about renewable energy but at the end of the day we can't govern the level of the lakes.

"There's a degree of common sense, a practical aspect that needs to be looked at.

"It's simply that the best form of heating that we've got at the moment and the best form of energy is coal, and I don't see that changing."

Smith wants more electricity generation from rivers.

"We have 206 rivers on the West Coast. I can't believe that run-of-the-river hydro is not an absolute priority."

The Coal Action Network says profit-driven retail electricity companies, of which the government owns over 50 per cent, use whatever fuel is needed, and economics - not the environment - is the major factor.

Genesis Energy, for instance, is still using its coal boilers at its Huntly Power Station, despite aiming to close them in 2018.

To March this year, 44 per cent of its total electricity generation came from coal.

Keeping global warming in check need to consign coal power to history, says Alok Sharma, who is the British president of this year's U.N. climate conference (COP 26).

The Group of Seven (G7) nations have pledged to scale up technologies and policies that accelerate the transition away from unabated coal capacity.

Sharma says island nations want the Group of 20 rich and emerging nations (G20) biggest emitters to follow suit.

Source

• NCR Online
• Stuff
• CathNews
• Image: Greenpeace