Anatoly Yanovsky – on the sustainable development and prospects of the coal industry

Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Anatoly Yanovsky In an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, he talked about why coal remains one of the most profitable and safest energy resources, how much harm its use actually does to the environment, and why the coal industry is very important for the Russian economy.

"If we support the idea of sustainable energy development, we should welcome any contribution to achieving its goals, in particular, the transition to clean coal technologies. Suffice it to say that in China, India and Vietnam alone, it is planned to build more than 1,000 coal-fired power plants operating on the principles of HELE (high efficiency and low emissions).", – said the deputy minister.

He noted that the high-profile campaign against coal has so far led to scanty results. For example, the planned emissions reductions by the member countries of the "anti-coal" Alliance (PPCA) due to the early decommissioning of coal-fired power plants are estimated at 1.6 Gt CO2 per year, which is 150 times less than the total emissions from all coal-fired power plants. And mostly low-power outdated enterprises are being decommissioned.

"Clean coal generation technologies have quite competitive economic indicators. The presence of coal in the fuel and energy balance increases energy security and reliability of energy supply. It is no coincidence that the countries of the Asia-Pacific region are building and planning to commission more than 200 GW of coal-fired generating capacities", – Anatoly Yanovsky commented.

Modern, highly efficient, environmentally friendly coal generation is 1.3 times cheaper than wind and 1.9 times cheaper than solar generation, so there will definitely be a place for coal in the systematically developing clean energy sector, the deputy minister stressed.

Read the full text of the interview in the section "The interview and comments".

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