Coal -- December 15, 2023

Locator: 46314COAL.
Locator: 46314INSANITY.  

Before we get to today's news, from the past, August 6, 2023, just a few months ago:

Now, back to today's news.

The "final statement" published by COP28, I assume, will be a fairly thick document, with lots of attachments and appendices.

I hope this is one off the appendices:

Global coal demand is set to rise by 1.4% this year and surpass a record-high level of 8.5 billion tons for the first time, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday. 

While coal demand in the United States and the EU is set for a 20% record decline this year, coal use in emerging economies “remains very strong, increasing by 8% in India and by 5% in China in 2023 due to rising demand for electricity and weak hydropower output,” the IEA said in its Coal 2023 annual report today.  

The US and the EU are not the problems here. Now that wind and solar energy is / are now the answer to all our global energy problems, the question is why India and China continue to add coal to their energy mix, rather than cutting coal use to the same extent that the US and the EU have.

Had India, China, and the rest of the emerging markets cut their coal demand by 20%, we would not have even needed COP28. 

By the way, "global coal demand is set to rise by 1.4%." Are you kidding me? A gazillion tons of coal use worldwide in a dozen emerging nations and the IEA bureaucrats can forecast coal use to this preciseness. LOL. The EIA can't even accurately account for oil supplies in the US from week to week. Yes, this is a fact. Doesn't even need fact checking but I will provide a link later.

Meanwhile, it appears New England will pivot from natural gas (clean) to coal and heating oil and crude oil and diesel (dirty) if it really gets cold this year and next. 

All I can think of is Albert Einstein's definition of insanity.