UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE (UNECE) - GENEVA

Ad Hoc Group of Experts on Coal in Sustainable Development

 

Ad Hoc Group of Experts on Coal in Sustainable Development was established in the year 2002 as successor body to the restructured Group of Experts on Coal and Thermal Power from the year 1997. To this group of experts from various countries, representatives of our brown coal companies organized in ZSDNP belong. The activity of the Czech delegation is coordinated by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Ad Hoc Group of Experts is one of UNECE advisory boards, namely a part of the UNECE Committee on Sustainable Energy that supervises the fulfilment of framework programme “Sustainable Energy”.

The objective of this programme is to support sustainable energy in the whole region of UNECE that also includes, in addition to European countries, the USA, Russia and Canada.

The main tasks are as follows:

-  to ensure sustainable access to high-quality energy services for all inhabitants of the whole region

-  to ensure the security of energy supply in a short-term, medium-term and long-term perspectives

-  to ensure the facilitation of transition to more sustainable future of energy and to introduce renewable sources to reduce health and ecological impacts following from energy production, transport and use.

- to ensure the well-balanced systems of energy supply networks running through the whole region with efforts to optimise operational capacities and to improve total regional cooperation

- to ensure the efforts to improve energy efficiency in energy generation and use, especially in countries with economies in transition

-  in context with development after EU extension to ensure: the integration of restructuring of energy sector, legislative and regulatory reforms and the reforming of determination of energy prices, and also social dimensions of energy policy formulation.  

The programme itself is composed of five main segments focused on encouraging convergence in the comprehensive legislative, regulatory and strategic framework, namely:

1. the creation of a classification system and general regulations

2. the promotion of energy efficiency and energy saving, especially in countries with economies in transition

3. the stimulation of wider utilisation of natural gas as “transition” fuel to overcome a period necessary for the development and commercial verification of “new” environment-friendly energy sources

4. the ecologizing of the whole coal-energy chain

5. the solving of problems associated with the interconnection of electric network systems.

 According to UNECE, coal is expected to remain the dominant fuel for electricity generation worldwide in the future too.   Hence it must remain a competitive source of energy in terms of both ecological acceptability and supply security.

 To coal producers, just the programme segment “Coal in Sustainable Development” if of fundamental importance, because the following items are considered here:

1. the providing of assistance to countries in the restructuring of their coal industries to improve economic efficiency and market orientation.

2. the advance and the strengthening of understanding as for the application of suitable clean coal technologies in the whole chain from coal mining to electricity generation.

 That is why representatives of brown coal companies belonging to ZSDNP and, as already mentioned above, coordinated by the Ministry of Industry and Trade participate in it.

 At present, Ad hoc Group of Experts on Coal in Sustainable Development is concerned with the following projects:

·  Economic and social impacts of coal industry restructuring in countries with economies in transition

·  Coal offer, demand and future prospects in the UNICE region

·  Clean coal technologies and technical innovations (including best available technologies for large thermal sources, seam gas and mine methane capture, carbon sequestration, a possibility of production of hydrogen from coal)

·  Acceptability of coal in the public eye

·  Capacity building for air quality control and application of clean coal combustion technologies in Central Asia.