Addressing developing countries’ concerns at the COP24

The Trump administration’s plans to host a sideshow promoting clean coal and nuclear energy at this year’s COP24 talks on climate change are likely to draw heavy criticism from environmental groups. When the U.S. brought a similar initiative to climate change talks in Bonn last November, protestors repeatedly tried to disrupt the panel. But for many countries that are heavily reliant on coal, the panel is likely to be the main event and is expected to pick up on a surge in groundswell support for Trump’s vision of a “fossil fuel alliance”.

Indeed, many developing countries feel that it is currently politically, economically and morally impossible for them to make a dramatic shift away from fossil fuels while huge swathes of their populations still do not have access to electricity. As Nigerian engineer Samson Bada emphasized, “lack of power comes up at every election right across the developing world,” meaning that connecting populations to the grid – mostly with cheap fossil fuels – takes precedence over other issues.

It’s not surprising then that emerging economies are increasingly calling for access to innovative technology that would help them lower emissions while leaving the door open for the most abundant energy source available to them: coal. “[An] alliance is crucial,” remarked Rosemary Falcon, a former professor of clean coal research Witwatersrand University (Wits) in Johannesburg, “How can anyone suggest a poor country without the technology should be left to pollute the air with coal or gas when we know how to burn it cleanly?”

Assistance with such technology is the sort of engagement emerging markets are looking for with wealthy nations, rather than being lectured on the “right” energy sources for the 21st century by the very countries who have thus far been responsible for the lion’s share of carbon emissions and the accelerated onset of climate change.

Africa and ASEAN defending their priorities

South Africa and ASEAN have been especially vocal in making the case for their energy agendas. As Thembisile Majola, Cape Town’s deputy energy minister, remarked while defending coal use as an essential tool in fighting poverty: “With the Germans, they can say ‘We’re moving from driving a Corolla to a BMW,’ while we are still trying to get the bicycle.”

Majola’s comments are merely the latest in a decades-long debate between the developing world and industrialised West, made all the more contentious in recent years following the World Bank’s decision to end financial support for fossil fuel projects. The pushback against this decision from developing nations has been so strong that even World Bank President Jim Yong Kim recently called the argument “compelling” that developing countries, “who have put almost none of the carbon in the air”, should be allowed to use coal for baseload energy.

Pushing forward

With or without the backing of international financial institutions like the World Bank, developing nations are determined to move forward with electrification while keeping their emissions as low as possible. The African Development Bank (ADB) has stepped up to the plate to fund those projects which the World Bank will not. Last month, ASEAN leaders reaffirmed their commitment to expanding access to electricity in tandem with clean coal power generation, citing the need to deploy the sort of low emission coal technologies which will be the topic of discussion at the COP24 sideshow – such high efficiency, low emission technology (HELE) – as well as facilitate carbon capture storage (CCS) and utilisation.

With many renewable projects remaining financially unrealistic for poorer countries, upgrading existing coal plants to ultra-supercritical (USC) plants is a feasible means of trimming carbon emissions without cutting access to life-changing electricity amid skyrocketing demand. As such, ASEAN has already paved the way for a global energy alliance of sorts. And in the face of a funding boycott by lenders in the West, Japan and China are the main financiers of 22 Indonesian coal power deals closed between 2010 and 2017.

Focus on cutting emissions, by any means

Policymakers from ASEAN and Africa are increasingly making it known that while solar and wind power initiatives are both laudable and necessary, focusing solely on them risks other promising technologies being overlooked. Mechanisms such as CCS, while still in an early stage of development, are proving extremely promising from both a financial and environmental perspective.

With the basic idea to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, CCS provides a commercial opening more in line with the needs of the developing world: fuel production, reduced emissions, and revenue generation. According to some projections, adequate support for new technologies like carbon capture could see as many as one billion metric tons of annual greenhouse gas removed from the earth’s atmosphere in 2030.

Regardless of the benefits of such technology, there can be no doubt that the Trump administration will take heat next month for injecting clean coal and nuclear energy into the COP24 arena. Still, many developing countries feel that the planned U.S. event is filling a void in climate change talks, and its detractors will never win over emerging markets by blatantly ignoring their concerns, priorities and financial realities.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes