Canada’s coal exports rise again in 2023 as promised ban elusive

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Canadian thermal coal exports rose another seven per cent last year, reaching the highest level in almost a decade.

The boom in exports of the type of coal that is burned to produce electricity comes as Canada leads a campaign to end the use of coal as an energy source around the world, including at home.

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The Liberals also promised three years ago that all thermal coal exports from Canada would cease by 2030, but exports have increased almost 20 per cent since that promise was made.

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Statistics released this month by the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert show that 19.5 million tonnes of thermal coal were exported through their terminals last year.

That’s just over 18 million tonnes in 2022 and is almost double the amount Canada exported in 2015, when the Liberals took power.

In 2022, more than half of Canada’s exports were coal produced in the United States, primarily Wyoming and Montana, which is shipped by rail to Vancouver and then across the Pacific. Most U.S. West Coast ports will no longer allow thermal coal exports, said Fraser Thomson, a lawyer for Ecojustice.

Thomson said the Canadian government needs to step in and make good on its promise to stop both Canadian exports and coal coming through Canada from the United States.

“There’s really no time to waste,” he said. “They promised this in 2021 and we have seen the cost of inaction. Coal exports continue to increase, this problem is getting worse and it is not going to solve itself. It requires definitive action, and the federal government is the government that can do it.”

Coal is considered the dirtiest fuel for producing electricity when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. It produces almost twice as much carbon dioxide when burned as natural gas to produce the same amount of energy.

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Global coal use expanded in 2022, in part because Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused gas prices to rise. The International Energy Agency said in its most recent forecast that it believes demand for thermal coal may have peaked in 2023.

China accounts for more than half of global thermal coal use and India nearly 15 percent.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said last month he hopes to announce a plan to phase out coal exports later this year.

NDP MP Laurel Collins grew tired of waiting for Guilbeault to act and in February introduced a private member’s bill to force an end to coal exports. The bill has not been debated.

On Friday she said she is exasperated by the continued rise in coal exports.

“Even after I made my motion, they simply repeated the same thing they have been saying for years, namely that they intend to phase out thermal coal exports, and yet the facts refute their claims. “There has been no action.”

Collins said there are workers whose jobs depend on coal who need a transition plan and time to adapt to different industries. If the government does not act soon, there will not be enough time for this adjustment and workers will be harmed.

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He also said Canada has been praised as a leader in ending coal-fired power and yet continues to export the problem.

Canada and the United Kingdom launched the Global Powering Past Coal Alliance seven years ago to encourage all countries to reduce their use of coal as an energy source.

Domestic use of coal-fired power in Canada has declined sharply, helped by Ontario’s decision to close all of its coal-fired power plants. The last one in that province closed in 2014.

Alberta’s last two coal plants will transition to natural gas this year.

Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are the only other provinces that rely significantly on coal, but regulations require them to shut down, transition to gas or equip them with emissions capture technology by 2030.

Despite all that, Thomson said Canada continues to ship coal abroad.

“What happened when the Liberals proposed an effective ban on burning coal nationally, the idea was that the coal mines that supplied those plants would close and eventually that industry would transition,” he said.

“What we have seen since then is that domestic coal production has tripled, and the government appears to be doing nothing about it despite promises to address it.”

Almost all of the thermal coal Canada produces comes from Alberta coal mines and is exported, primarily to Asia, from ports in British Columbia.

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