Press release – 21 March, 2016Sydney, 22 March 2016 – The world’s rapidly dwindling freshwater resources could be further depleted if plans for hundreds of new coal power plants worldwide go ahead, threatening severe drought and conflicts over water, according to a new Greenpeace International report released on World Water Day (22 March 2016).The
report
is the first global plant-by-plant study of the coal industry’s current and future water demand. Globally, 8,359 existing coal power plant units already consume enough water to meet the basic water needs of 1 billion people.
“Not only does coal pollute our skies and fuel climate change, it also deprives us of our most precious resource – water. If all the proposed coal plants around the world were built, the water they consume globally would almost double,” said Nikola Casule, Greenpeace Australia Pacific’s climate and energy campaigner.
In Australia, the report shows that the coal industry uses up 537.35m cubic metres of water every year – more water than could fit in Sydney Harbour (500m cubic metres).
“As an industry, coal is contributing less and less to Australia’s economy, but is still taking up enormous resources and inflicting lasting damage to our environment. The cost of propping up this industry is simply too high for Australians, and can no longer be justified,” said Dr Casule.
The Greenpeace research identifies the regions around the world that are already in water deficit, where existing and proposed coal plants would speed up the depletion of water resources. A quarter of the proposed new coal plants are planned in what Greenpeace calls ‘red-list areas’, where water is used faster than it is naturally replenishing.
The top countries with proposed additional coal plant capacity in red-list areas are China (237 gigawatts), India (52 GW) and Turkey (7 GW). Almost half of the proposed Chinese coal fleet is in red-list areas. In India and Turkey this figure is 13%.
Coal is one of the most water-intensive methods of generating electricity. According to the International Energy Agency, coal could account for 50% of the growth in global water consumption for power generation over the next 20 years. Greenpeace research shows that if the coal plants proposed globally come online, they will increase consumption of water by 90%.
“Australia must recognise that replacing coal with renewable energy will not only help the country to deliver on its climate commitments, but it will also save huge amounts of water. It’s more urgent than ever that we move towards a 100% renewable future,” said Dr Casule.
Greenpeace proposes three key policy steps which together can turn around the coal industry’s global water use:
• An immediate moratorium on coal expansion in regions with high water stress, and a transition from thirsty coal to energy that uses little or no water, like solar PV and wind.
• Replacing the planned coal plants in the red-list areas with renewable energy, such as solar PV and wind power, would avoid consumption of 1.8 billion cubic metres of water per year in China, and 1.2 billion cubic meters per year in India.
• Closing plants that have been operating for 40 years. The US, for example, could save a staggering 9 billion cubic meters of water by shutting down its old coal power plants.