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The global impact of coal power
https://www.ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2019/02/global-impact-coal-power.htmlThe global impact of coal power
18.02.2019 | News
By: Ori Schipper
With data and modelling from almost 8000 coal power plants, researchers from ETH Zurich present the most comprehensive global picture to date of climate and human health impacts from coal power generation.
Coal-fired power plants produce more than just the carbon dioxide that contributes to global warming. When burning coal, they also release particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury – thus damaging the health of many people around the world in various ways. To estimate where action is most urgently required, the research group led by Stefanie Hellweg from ETH Zurich’s Institute of Environmental Engineering modelled and calculated the undesired side effects of coal power for each of the 7,861 power plant units in the world.
Uneven pollution levels
The results, which were recently published in the journal Nature Sustainability, show that China and the US are the two largest producers of coal power, but power plants in India take the highest toll in the world when it comes to health. Central Europe, North America and China all have modern power plants, but Eastern Europe, Russia and India still have many older power plants equipped with insufficient flue gas treatment. As a result, these power plants only remove a fraction of the pollutants – while also often burning coal of inferior quality. “More than half of the health effects can be traced back to just one tenth of the power plants. These power plants should be upgraded or shut down as quickly as possible,” says Christopher Oberschelp, the lead author of the study.
…
Coal power threatens to grow worldwide
Global coal resources will last for several hundred years, so the harmful emissions need to be limited politically. “It is particularly important to leave coal that is high in mercury and sulphur content in the ground,” says Oberschelp. Reducing the negative health effects of coal power generation should be a global priority: “But further industrialisation, especially in China and India, poses the risk of aggravating the situation instead,” write the researchers led by Hellweg in their article.
…
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0221-618.02.2019 | News
By: Ori Schipper
With data and modelling from almost 8000 coal power plants, researchers from ETH Zurich present the most comprehensive global picture to date of climate and human health impacts from coal power generation.
Coal-fired power plants produce more than just the carbon dioxide that contributes to global warming. When burning coal, they also release particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury – thus damaging the health of many people around the world in various ways. To estimate where action is most urgently required, the research group led by Stefanie Hellweg from ETH Zurich’s Institute of Environmental Engineering modelled and calculated the undesired side effects of coal power for each of the 7,861 power plant units in the world.
Uneven pollution levels
The results, which were recently published in the journal Nature Sustainability, show that China and the US are the two largest producers of coal power, but power plants in India take the highest toll in the world when it comes to health. Central Europe, North America and China all have modern power plants, but Eastern Europe, Russia and India still have many older power plants equipped with insufficient flue gas treatment. As a result, these power plants only remove a fraction of the pollutants – while also often burning coal of inferior quality. “More than half of the health effects can be traced back to just one tenth of the power plants. These power plants should be upgraded or shut down as quickly as possible,” says Christopher Oberschelp, the lead author of the study.
People in India, Asia and Eastern Europe suffer the worst health effects from the pollutants emitted by coal-fired power plants. (Image: Christopher Oberschelp/ETH Zurich)
…
Coal power threatens to grow worldwide
Global coal resources will last for several hundred years, so the harmful emissions need to be limited politically. “It is particularly important to leave coal that is high in mercury and sulphur content in the ground,” says Oberschelp. Reducing the negative health effects of coal power generation should be a global priority: “But further industrialisation, especially in China and India, poses the risk of aggravating the situation instead,” write the researchers led by Hellweg in their article.
…
