This is coal. And this is what it does to us. But even though we know how
dirty coal is, we can't get enough of it. Coal powers phones, heats homes and is
used to make the concrete and steel our lives are built around. Coal use is falling in the US and Europe. But across Asia it's still king. Coal is the biggest source of energy in
countries like China, India and Indonesia. They plan to keep mining
coal and building plants to burn it. So how did the world get hooked on coal — and how can we quit the addiction? The story of coal begins 250 years ago when British inventors realized you could heat water with coal to make steam, spin turbines and power machines. Actually — let's rewind 300 million years before the steam engine to
carbon-rich plants that died in swamps. Millions of years of heat and
pressure turned these fossils into rocks packed with energy. And back in the modern world,
that energy was sorely needed. The Industrial Revolution
created machines. Lots of them. It led to a global boom in prosperity
that was unprecedented in human history. Governments built railways
that linked coal mines to cities. That helped them feed factories and homes
that were hungry for coal. “There were little to no alternatives. Therefore it was very rational, it was
very understandable and it was not that controversial.” This is Pao-Yu Oei. He's an energy expert who studies how countries that have invested in coal can move to cleaner sources of energy. “For Europe, we can definitely say there
has been a very good side of coal throughout the 20th century... Economic prosperity came across the
continent, as well as peace that went along with the European Union.” But the prosperity coal
brings comes at a price. For more than half a century scientists
have known that burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere and heats the planet. It's already warmed by more than 1 degree Celsius and is on track for a catastrophic 3 degrees by the end of the century. And coal is behind 40% of the
CO2 that comes from burning fuels. But climate change
isn't even the only problem. Dirty air kills more than 7 million people a year. It's about as deadly as smoking cigarettes. Burning coal releases pollutants that get
into your lungs and spread through your bloodstream — even reaching your brain. In the 1800s doctors already knew
that coal was bad for your health. Miners got sick
from breathing in the dust. Cities were blanketed by fumes that crept
into homes and made families cough. But governments had tied
their economies to coal. And they weren't willing to give it up. Mining and burning coal damages the
climate and hurts people's health. That's why the UN has called to kick coal out of the electricity supply by 2030 in rich countries and by 2040 for the rest of the world. “We need renewable
energy and green jobs. No more fossil fuel subsidies
or new coal-fired power plants.” So, how's that coming along? Well, global coal emissions
have basically plateaued. In South America and Africa,
coal was barely used in the first place. In the US and Europe, coal
has been declining for decades. But across Asia, coal just keeps growing. Last year China and India burned more than two-thirds of all the coal that the world burned. The rest of the continent used more coal than the EU and US put together. And the problem isn't just the coal that's burning today. The new mines they're opening and power
plants they're building are designed to run for decades. Now, some Southeast Asian countries
cancelled plans to build coal plants last year. But India, for instance, wants to invest
$55 billion in coal over the next decade. It needs to spend several times that on
renewables to meet its targets. And then there's China. It burns half the world's coal but has
pledged to slash carbon emissions to net-zero by 2060. Here's what a report by two environmental
research groups last November found out about that: To meet its climate goals, China
must ban new coal-powered plants and double the electricity
it makes from wind and solar. “They are not fully prepared to achieve that.” This is Shuwei Zhang,
lead author of the report. He says that coal plants built today will
become stranded assets that are unprofitable to keep running. “The most important thing is that we need to stop the build of new fossil fuel assets as soon as possible.” The industry disagrees. “The world may not like coal, but the
world needs coal.” This is a speech by the boss of the
World Coal Association in September 2020. “But this is not about being liked or popular, it's about being realistic.” The industry argues that it can make coal
clean by sucking CO2 out of power plants and storing it in the ground. But the technology it's banking on is
expensive and doesn't exist at scale yet. Each year the world can capture about
40 Megatons of CO2 from industrial sites. Annual carbon emissions are
hundreds of times bigger. So how can countries quit coal –
and can China and India learn from the West's mistakes? Let's look at the US. Coal has been declining there for decades because of cheap alternatives like oil and gas. And now wind turbines and solar
panels are making it fall even faster. The US closed 36 coal plants last
year and has cut its capacity by 25% in the last decade. But politicians kept telling coal
workers that their future was safe. “You'll get another job, you won't mine
anymore, do you like that idea? They said no we don't like that idea, we
love to mine, that's what we want to do. I said if that's what you want to do,
that's what you're going to do.” Trump's moved on. But he wasn't alone. “This is coal. Don't be afraid, don't be
scared, it won't hurt you. It's coal.” Scientists have a problem:
governments need to quit coal to keep us safe. But they also need to protect the
livelihoods of communities who live from it. That's what Germany did. It closed its final hard coal mine in 2018
after 60 years of steady decline and did so without firing a single miner. The government retrained younger miners
and paid out older ones who wanted to retire early. But scientists say the energy transition
needs to be fair and fast. Germany dragged out its transition over
decades and even last year it was still building plants to burn coal. Researchers at the Technical University of Berlin
in 2019 found that a quicker phase-out would have cost less and let
mining communities adapt better. “Clinging on for too long with an old
dying industry has a tendency not to support new alternative industries. Because these are being seen as a kind of
competition that might speed up the process.” So what can coal-hungry
countries like India, where more than 700,000 people work as
miners, take away from this? Well, first, politicians should be honest with voters that coal's era is over – and set a clear end date. Then instead of subsidizing coal companies, governments
could put the money into retraining workers and making
new industries for their families. "Not moving, not trying to look for a plan B,
is the worst thing you can do, because otherwise in 10 years' time the last mine
will close, no matter what you want, and then there's nothing left." If you want more videos that
take a global look at the climate crisis then hit subscribe! And tell us what you want more
of in the comments below.
