France draws a curtain on coal industry

By , Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor




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The fear factor



Germany, Sweden, Belgium, and Italy have decided to phase out their nuclear plants as they age; the new Spanish government says it plans to do the same; and Britain has postponed a decision.

But Europe still relies on nuclear power plants for 35 percent of its electricity, and some in the industry hope that the political mood changes as policymakers face up to their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Nuclear plants, unlike their coal or gas-fired counterparts, release practically no CO2 into the atmosphere.

The EU has pledged to reduce its CO2 emissions by 8 percent from 1990 levels by 2012, in a bid to curb the greenhouse gases that are believed responsible for global warming.

The natural successor

Natural gas might seem the logical successor to nuclear energy. But to generate power on a large scale, coal's boosters point to the fact that Europe's own supplies of gas - in North Sea fields exploited by Britain and Norway - will have run out within 15 years, leaving the Continent dependent on Russia and Turkmenistan.

"From the point of view of energy security, we need to be more independent in Europe, and the area where Europe is least dependent on imports is coal," says Mr. Janssens.

Environmentalists are pushing for a greater reliance on renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, and wave power, and in some parts of Europe the authorities see real potential.

The Scottish government, for example, plans to derive 40 percent of Scotland's energy from wind farms by 2020.

But windmills' effect on the landscape has upset local residents wherever they have been installed in Europe, and the IEA does not foresee renewable sources providing more than 9 percent of Europe's energy needs by 2030.

That, insists Janssens, leaves coal as a reliable, available resource whose price is less volatile than foreign oil or gas. "Our challenge for the next ten years is to prove that we have a valuable resource, and the technology to burn coal while respecting the environment."

"Clean burn" technologies, reducing dust and sulfur emissions, are under development, but the real problem is carbon dioxide, whose capture remains a theoretical but expensive possibility.

Since the Kyoto Protocol sets no greenhouse gas targets after 2012, "nobody knows what sort of carbon taxes might be imposed," Janssens says. "No one will invest today in a coal-fired plant with such an uncertain future."

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