Charleston Gazette

Steam and smoke is seen over the coal burning power plant in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009. Coal power plants are among the biggest producer of CO2, that is supposed to be responsible for climate change. Delegates from 193 nations at a U.N. climate talks conference in Copenhagen are deadlocked in talks on a deal to curb global warming.(AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Charleston Gazette
Thanks to my buddy Osha Gray Davidson and to the Center for Public Integrity’s climate change team for pointing this out to me … it could be pretty important breaking news from the Copenhagen climate talks, at least for folks interested in coal.

The U.K. Telegraph is reporting:

The clean-coal industry has been shut out of the global emissions trading scheme at the Copenhagen climate change talks, dealing a blow to the U.K., U.S. and Australia.

The three Western countries and Saudi Arabia had strongly argued that advanced new clean-coal plants, which trap emissions underground, ought to earn credits for being a low-carbon source of energy.

But a United Nations committee decided not to include the industry in its Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which rewards companies that invest in green energy.

Remember that earlier in the week, Gene Trisko of the United Mine Workers union had raised a similar issue right here on Coal Tattoo.

There’s also coverage of this development in Copenhagen from The Australian, which reports:

THE Australian government’s project of trying to make coal less polluting by capturing and storing its carbon emissions has been dealt an expensive blow at the climate summit.

The UN conference refused to include clean coal technology in its main program for channelling money to clean fuel projects, locking carbon capture and storage out of potentially billions of dollars of funding.

Australian officials said they still hoped that Climate Change Minister Penny Wong could get CCS into the funding program in the final rounds of ministerial talks in Copenhagen but its rejection yesterday by long-time opponent Brazil makes that an uphill struggle.

Australia failed to get CCS included in the funding program, the Clean Development Mechanism, at talks in Poznan, Poland, last year, and Brazil has maintained its resistance to CCS funding. The mechanism gives lucrative carbon credits to firms that invest in clean technology projects in developing countries, and those credits were seen as a valuable way to subsidise the development of CCS.

Charleston Gazette

Peter Cook, chief executive of the Co-operative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies, said the decision was not unexpected and was part of a debate he believed would result in CCS being included in the funding development mechanism.

“Whatever happens with CDM, as long as we continue to use fossil fuels we’re going to need CCS if we’re going to do something about the emissions,” Dr Cook said. “We dare not leave CCS out of the equation.”