22nd May, 2009
This roundtable event brought together stakeholders from the PRC coal sector. The purpose was to inform Chinese government climate officials and negotiators about the significant carbon abatement potential in China’s coal sector, to explore technological options and strategies for realizing this potential, to dicuss obstacles to the deployment of these technological solutions as well as how such obstacles might be overcome, and to discuss global financing mechanisms pot 2012 that can help support accelerated roll out of these technologies.
This roundtable was limited to around 30 participants, among which were leading international coal sector experts and business as well as senior Chinese government officials and climate negotiators.
Participants discussed how coal will continue to dominate the energy mix in China for the foreseeable future, and hence emissions from coal mining will continue to be a significant policy concern. China currently contributes 43% of global coal mine methane emissions and by 2020 will account for half of such emissions. However, these emissions could be drastically reduced with the deployment of proven technological solutions (mainly by ventilated air methane (VAM), but also coal mine methane (CMM) and coal bed methane (CBM)). Businesses are keen to assist in bringing in these new technologies, but the market needs support, direction and regulatory certainty from the government. Several market and regulatory barriers impede large scale deployment, including the lack of a secure long-term revenue stream from CDM, concerns over IPR protection, little understanding amongst Chinese companies about the viability and financial rewards of proposed solutions, and regulatory hurdles.
