COAL ATLAS

The Coal Atlas 2015 examines the systemic damage caused by coal extraction and combustion, highlighting its role as a primary driver of global CO2 emissions and its associated health and human rights violations. It analyzes the economic instability of the 'carbon bubble' and the failure of technologies like carbon capture and storage, while documenting the rise of renewable energy and grassroots protests against the coal industry across various nations, including China, India, the US, Russia, and Germany.

• Coal is the single largest source of carbon dioxide emissions globally, accounting for 44 percent of all energy-related CO2 emissions and more than one-quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions in 2014.
• To limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, approximately 88 percent of confirmed coal reserves must remain unextracted.
• Coal mining causes severe environmental degradation, including the destruction of landscapes in open-pit mining and the acidification of groundwater through the production of sulphuric acid.
• The health costs of coal-fired power in the European Union are estimated at nearly 43 billion euro annually, with 18,200 premature deaths attributed to coal power in the EU each year.
• The coal industry is characterized by significant human rights violations, including the forced relocation of communities and the use of brutal security personnel in countries such as Colombia, Indonesia, Mozambique, and South Africa.
• The 'carbon bubble' refers to the financial risk that fossil-fuel reserves will become 'stranded assets' as climate policies make them unburnable and less valuable.
• Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is deemed technically and economically unviable, as it reduces power plant efficiency by 11 to 15 percent and lacks reliable monitoring for leaks.
• China, the world's largest coal consumer, saw a 2.9 percent decline in coal consumption in 2014, driven by efforts to reduce smog and an increase in renewable energy investments.
• In the United States, coal is losing market share to natural gas and renewables, with 40 percent of all US coal plants headed for retirement since 2010.
• Coal remains a central but contested part of India's energy mix; while it has aided poverty reduction, it has caused substantial health and social costs, and the country is now importing nearly one-quarter of its coal.
• The coal industry utilizes extensive lobbying and political influence to slow the transition to renewable energy, including funding climate skeptics and influencing EU climate targets.
• Global coal production is heavily subsidized by taxpayers; for example, EU member states spent 380 billion euros between 1970 and 2007 to keep locally produced coal competitive.

APA

Baxter, C., von Brackel, B., Feldt, H., Franken, M., Fuhr, L., Groll, S., Harneit-Sievers, A., Holdinghausen, H., Jungjohann, A., Mahnke, E., McDonnell, T., & Slivyak, V. (2015). COAL ATLAS. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/coalatlas2015_web_151031.pdf

Chicago

Baxter, Cindy, Benjamin von Brackel, Heidi Feldt, Markus Franken, Lili Fuhr, Stefanie Groll, Axel Harneit-Sievers, et al. COAL ATLAS. Friends of the Earth International, 2015. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/coalatlas2015_web_151031.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{baxter2015coal, author = {Baxter, Cindy and von Brackel, Benjamin and Feldt, Heidi and Franken, Markus and Fuhr, Lili and Groll, Stefanie and Harneit-Sievers, Axel and Holdinghausen, Heike and Jungjohann, Arne and Mahnke, Eva and McDonnell, Tim and Slivyak, Vladimir}, title = {{COAL ATLAS}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2015}, month = nov, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/coalatlas2015_web_151031.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }