Archive for 2 Coal

Thirsty Coal, A Water Crisis Exacerbated by China’s New Mega Coal Power Bases

Abstract As China’s economy grows, its thirst for energy – nearly 70% of which now comes from coal – worsens. The world’s second largest economy will construct 16 large-scale coal power bases, predominantly in western areas of the country over the duration of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15). According to the plan, in 2015, the following bases: Shendong, Mengdong, Jinbei, Jinzhong, Jindong, Ningdong, and Shaanbei, most of which are situated in Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Ningxia, will contribute a total coal output of 2.2 billion tons, contributing to 56% of China’s annual coal output for 2015 (3.9 billion tons).
Date 2012 08
Author
Publisher Greenpeace
Link http://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/Global/eastasia/publications/reports/climate-energy/2012/Greenpeace%20Thirsty%20Coal%20Report.pdf
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2 Coal, 2.3 Coal and the Environment

Yunnan Landslide Highlights the Devastation Wrought by Coal Mining

Abstract A Yunnan villager describes how the encroachment of coal mining has all but destroyed his village and caused almost irreparable environmental damage. It took the local authorities less than two days to decide that the landslide which killed 46 people in a remote Yunnan village on 11 January 2013 was a “natural disaster.”  None of the surviving villagers were convinced by this hasty conclusion however and 72 of them signed an open letter to the State Council in Beijing asking for a proper investigation that focused specifically on the role played by the nearby Gaopo coal mine. Many villagers believed the landslide had been caused by an explosion at the mine.
Date 2013 01 23
Author
Publisher China Labour Bulletin
Link http://www.clb.org.hk/en/node/110202
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2 Coal, 2.3 Coal and the Environment

Methane Emissions from Abandoned Coal Mines in China

Abstract This study is based on a detailed inventory of methane emissions from abandoned coal mines in China. The initial data collection efforts for this study focused on the eastern piedmont of the Taihang mountains in the coal-bearing region of Shanxi Province, China. Chinese government sources state that methane emissions associated with coal production were 19 billion m3 in 2006, whereas the total methane emissions from all coal mine sources in China are estimated to contribute 730 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent to the atmosphere each year. Chinese coal production has risen from 2.380 billion tonnes in 2006 to 2.716 billion tonnes in 2008. While there are activities to capture and destroy methane from active coal mines and pre-mine drainage funded through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), through direct support from external organizations and agencies and through the introduction of regulations, there is dearth of information on emissions from abandoned mines and no known projects to capture and destroy the methane being emitted from this source. The reasons for this are numerous: lack of empirical data on methane being generated, ownership issues and a lack of focus on abandoned mine methane due to the range of opportunities available at active mines—under the CDM, for instance, there is currently no approved methodology for abandoned mine methane projects. This study is designed to help redress the lack of knowledge of, and focus on, abandoned mines by producing a systematic inventory of abandoned mine methane emissions in China, with an initial focus on the coal bearing regions of Shanxi Province. There is believed to be 260 billion tonnes of coal in Shanxi Province, and the annual coal production was 0.66 billion tonnes in 2008 (representing nearly one quarter of the China total) from 2800 separate mines. The life time of an average local mine is typically 20 years.
Author
Publisher University of Colorado at Boulder’s Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute
Link https://www.globalmethane.org/Data/Final_Report_AMM_Emissions_China.pdf
Series EPA Project No. EPAOARCCD0903
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2 Coal, 2.3 Coal and the Environment

On the Ecological Reconstruction of the Coal Mining Area Based on the Sustainable Development

Abstract The coal is the most important disposable energy in our country. Coal resources play a strategic role in our country’s economic and social development, but there are a series of ecological environment problems about the mining and the utilization of coal resources. These problems in the coal mining area have already become an obstacle to the sustainable development and also a major hidden danger to the regional ecological security. On the analysis of ubiquitous problems of the ecological environment in the coal mining area and supported by the theory of the sustainable ecological development, the thesis penetrates the characteristics and laws of the mine ecosystem succession and reconstructs the mine ecological industrial chain. To change the traditional thoughts of “development- pollution- governance”, new ideas and ways of the sustainable development of the coal mining area have been put forward in order to achieve the harmonious development of economy, society and environment.
Date 2010 03
Author
Publisher Journal of Sustainable Development
Link http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/download/5361/4475
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2 Coal, 2.3 Coal and the Environment

Learning Lessons from Coal Mine Disasters in Shanxi and West Virginia

Abstract On 14 June 2012, the Xiangning County Court in rural Shanxi sentenced nine defendants to jail for their part in the Wangjialing coal mine disaster in which 38 miners died two years earlier. Eight of the defendants were sentenced to three years imprisonment while Jiang Shijie, the head of the construction team deemed most at fault for the flooding disaster, was given a four year jail term. The Shanxi Administration for Coal Mine Safety had earlier fined the mine owner, Huajin Coking Coal Co. Ltd., 2.25 million yuan, while the construction company that was responsible for the digging work that caused the flooding, China Coal First Construction, was fined 2.1 million yuan. The Wangjialing disaster occurred on 28 March 2010. Eight days later, in the afternoon of 5 April 2010, a massive coal dust explosion ripped through the Upper Big Branch Mine in the American coal heartland of West Virginia, killing 29 miners and injuring two others. It was the worst coal mine disaster in the United States for 40 years.
Date 2010 06 25
Author
Publisher China Labour Bulletin
Link http://www.clb.org.hk/en/node/110083
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2 Coal, 2.4 Coal and Workers

Nationalization is Not a Short Cut to Coal Mine Safety

Abstract Moves by the authorities in Shanxi, the province at the heart of China’s coal country, to close and merge small privately-run mines with larger state-run mines will only improve coal mine safety if, in addition, the miners themselves are allowed and encouraged to play a key role in safety management and engage in collective bargaining with their bosses over pay and work conditions. Managers at state-owned mines are just as fixated with profits as their counterparts in the private sector and, in most state-owned mines, production is in any case contracted out to private operators. Moreover, managers in state-owned mines are just as ruthless as the owners of small private mines in imposing inequitable compensation agreements on coal mine accident victims and their families. While the closure, merger and nationalization of small private mines may make coal mine safety management more efficient, it can only be the start of the process.
Date 2009 11 10
Author
Publisher China Labour Bulletin
Link http://www.clb.org.hk/en/node/100593
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2 Coal, 2.4 Coal and Workers

Problems in China’s Coal Policy—from Liushuipan Coal Bureau chief in Guizhou Province

Abstract On July 24, 2002, a gas explosion occurred at the Taojiawan coal mine. The Taojiawan pit is in Yushe village, Shuicheng county, Liupanshui city in Guizhou province. According to official reports, 25 people were working in the pit at the time of whom 18 were killed and seven injured. China Labour Bulletin rang government offices at city, county and township levels to learn more about the accident and also managed to speak about safety conditions with miners injured in the explosion. According to one miner who was in the shaft at the time of the accident but fortunately escaped death, there were 31 miners in the shaft, considerably more than the official count of twenty-five. CLB also spoke with a Mr. Jiang, head of the Liupanshui Coal Bureau who explained some of the problems in China’s coal policy.
Date 2002 08 03
Author
Publisher China Labour Bulletin
Link http://www.clb.org.hk/en/node/2086
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2 Coal, 2.4 Coal and Workers

A Cry for Justice: The Voices of Chinese Workers

Abstract The accounts in this book, told in workers’ voices from inside China, are drawn directly from radio interviews by one of the leaders of an independent labour group organized in 1989. It includes information about strikes in the coal sector.
Date 2008 03
Author
Publisher The Albert Shanker Institute
Link http://www.shankerinstitute.org/docs/cry-for-justice.pdf
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2 Coal, 2.4 Coal and Workers

Coal Mining Safety: China’s Achilles’ Heel

Abstract This chapter addresses the bleak working conditions in China’s coal mining industry. The paper examines the importance of coal as China’s primary energy source, critically assesses the plausibility of the country’s statistics on coal mining safety and identifies special features of Chinese coal mining. Subsequently, the paper discusses the miners’ social dependence, the government’s failure to reform, the importance of accurate information and the conflict between economic development and social well-being. The paper argues that the coal mining industry places little value on the life of a miner.
Author Tu Jianjun
Publisher World Security Institute
Link WSI China Security Vol.3 No.2 Spring 2007: Non-Traditional Security, Economic Security & Energy http://www.isn.ethz.ch/Digital-Library/Publications/Detail/?ots591=0c54e3b3-1e9c-be1e-2c24-a6a8c7060233&lng=en&id=31999
Series China Security
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2 Coal, 2.4 Coal and Workers

CCS in China: Toward an Environmental, Health, and Safety Regulatory Framework

Abstract This brief frames how carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) might be regulated within the Chinese environmental policy context, with an emphasis on ensuring protection of people and the environment.
Date 2010 08
Author Deborah Seligsohn
Publisher World Resources Institute
Link http://pdf.wri.org/ccs_in_china.pdf
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2 Coal, 2.4 Coal and Workers

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