FUELLING THE FIRE

The report examines the risks of Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) and Coal Chemicals, highlighting their potential to expand coal reserves and increase greenhouse gas emissions. It details environmental failures in Australia, the US, and South Africa, and the massive scale of coal-to-chemical projects in China, concluding that these technologies are incompatible with a 1.5C warming limit.

• Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) could significantly increase the amount of coal available for extraction, potentially adding around 600Gt of coal reserves, which would result in an additional 1650Gt of CO2 if burned.
• UCG is highly carbon-intensive compared to renewable energy; its emissions are approximately 8 times higher than the UK Committee on Climate Change's 2030 target of under 100kgCO2/MWh.
• Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), often cited as a way to make UCG 'low carbon', is described as a 'false solution' due to its lack of commercial viability, technical challenges in storage, and the fact that it may be used for enhanced oil recovery.
• UCG trials in Queensland, Australia, have led to severe groundwater and soil contamination, resulting in the state government permanently banning the technology in April 2016.
• Coal-to-Liquids (CTL) is extremely carbon-intensive, emitting nearly twice as much CO2 as conventional diesel production on a well-to-wheel basis.
• China is the dominant player in Coal Chemicals, producing over half of the world's methanol, with approximately 80% of its 37.4Mt production in 2014 derived from coal.
• Coal Chemical processes in China, particularly in arid regions like Inner Mongolia, cause severe water scarcity; for example, Shenhua's DCL project in Ordos consumes over 10 million m3 of fresh water annually.
• Coal-to-Gas (CTG) projects in China pose a significant climate risk; analysis suggests that if 40 planned projects became operational, they could emit over 986MtCO2, roughly equivalent to Germany's total annual emissions in 2012.
• In South Africa, Sasol's CTL plants are highly polluting, emitting around 70Mt of GHGs (CO2e), which is more than the total emissions of Sweden in 2012.
• In the United States, coal gasification projects like Kemper and the Texas Clean Energy Project have faced spiraling costs and massive losses, with Kemper's estimated cost more than doubling to US$6.7 billion.

APA

Monk, F., Hallowes, D., Moore, K., & Ross, L. (2016). FUELLING THE FIRE. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/FoEI_Fuelling_the_Fire_July2016_FinalReport_erratum.pdf

Chicago

Monk, Flick, David Hallowes, Kat Moore, and Lukas Ross. FUELLING THE FIRE. Friends of the Earth International, 2016. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/FoEI_Fuelling_the_Fire_July2016_FinalReport_erratum.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Monk |first1=Flick |last2=Hallowes |first2=David |last3=Moore |first3=Kat |last4=Ross |first4=Lukas |title=FUELLING THE FIRE |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=July 2016 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/FoEI_Fuelling_the_Fire_July2016_FinalReport_erratum.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{monk2016fuelling, author = {Monk, Flick and Hallowes, David and Moore, Kat and Ross, Lukas}, title = {{FUELLING THE FIRE}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2016}, month = jul, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/FoEI_Fuelling_the_Fire_July2016_FinalReport_erratum.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }