Coal news and updates

Putting to rest the industry argument that cheap, dirty coal is somehow a solution to extreme global poverty, a coalition of development experts published a new paper on Tuesday arguing that, in fact, coal is one of the major forces driving climate change, which they say is "the greatest long-term threat to eradicating poverty."

 

The paper, Beyond Coal: scaling up clean energy to fight global poverty (pdf), makes the case that in developing nations, coal has been given "too much credit for the reduction of extreme poverty."

 

Moreover, the coalition—which includes the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Oxfam International, and the India-based Vashuda Foundation—argues that the widespread use of coal has had a detrimental impact on poor populations while at the same time contributing the most carbon emissions of any fuel source, hastening dangerous climate change.

SOurce:Common Dreams