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#AEBF25 | Day 3 - A Vision for Coal’s Future | ASEAN Centre for Energy | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: #AEBF25 | Day 3 - A Vision for Coal’s Future
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Core Theme
The core theme is the advocacy for a pragmatic and sustainable future for coal, emphasizing its continued importance for energy security, economic growth, and industrialization, particularly in developing nations, through responsible stewardship and technological innovation rather than outright abandonment.
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Well, good morning distinguished guests
and colleagues and partners. Thank you
for the opportunity to speak with you
today um on what we believe is a vision
for Cole's uh sustainable future and on
the role of cooperation in shaping that
future. And I know that there's um
probably going to be a real um
reflection on the word sustainable um as
we move forward. And certainly when I
became chief executive of what is future
coal now in 2019,
the industry was quite simply vilified
and the media declared Cole's
elimination. But banks and governments
raced to adopt those exclusionary
policies. And for many, the question was
not if coal would end, but but when.
Over the past five years, I've cautioned
against that ideology. Coal was never
going to disappear within the decade.
Investment was never going to collapse.
And above all, billions of people in
developing and emerging nations were
never going to be denied their right to
affordable, reliable, secure energy and
the foundation for lifting people out of
poverty and placing nations on the path
of to prosperity. um as we've definitely
seen China utilize and certainly India
well on this path today reality is
catching up and the International Energy
Agency who once confident about peak
coal now conceds that demand will
plateau with no visible decline in
sight. Electricity use is surging,
driven by mass electrification,
expanding air conditioning and heating
and the rise of energyintensive data
centers powering artificial
intelligence. In 2025 alone, global
demand is expected to grow by more than
3% with coal remaining the single
largest source of power at 33%.
And these realities confirm what coal
producing and consuming nations,
especially those in the Azen, have
always known that coal remains the
anchor of energy security, the
foundation of growth and the pillar of industrialization.
industrialization.
And as I said those five years ago when
we started this journey for me as the
CEO words like energy affordability and
security um were just not spoken about.
So it's quite important that across this
region coal has empowered economic and
technology uh technologic uh
transformation and this is actually
quite positive and almost role modeling
um what needs to happen in the future.
As we well know in this room in
Indonesia, nearly 50 gigawatts of coal
power underpin the economy, including
more than 11 gigawatts from captive
plants that supply the energy directly
to industrial zones, contributing over
20% to GDP. And these plants shield
manufacturers and essential services
from grid instability, preventing losses
exceeding in the billions um each year.
And to sustain this growth, Indonesia
plans to add almost 27 gawatt of new
capacity over the next seven years. And
this is of most interest to the western
nations that I meet with in terms of
governments around the world. And most
of that, as we know, will be through
captive power. Elsewhere in Vietnam, the
power development plan 8 and the
Philippines expansion of coal for
stability and Malaysia's responsible
transition pathway all show and
demonstrate that reliable affordable
power is just non-negotiable for
competitiveness and jobs. And that's why
cooperation matters between the Azen
with its mosaic of nations, cultures,
and faiths and like-minded organizations
such as us, future call. In 2017, we
began our journey with the Azen Center
of Energy. And our goal was really to
inform and educate governments,
investors, and the industry at large.
But it was really in 2020 when our
partnership deepened with a renewedou
and two landmark reports. One
highlighting Cole's role in the Azen's
uh you know contribution to the UN
sustainable development goals and
another about clean coal technologies in
the Azen showing that investment in
modern coal technologies can cut
emissions and at a greater scale than
many alternatives. I want to be very
clear that certainly for future coal
this is not a question of choosing
renewables over um coal but this is or
any base load for that matter but this
is really about focusing on what is
important what is affordable what is
secure and what is reliable particularly
in terms of base load power and these
studies have informed governments policy
makers and financiers around the world
of coal's potential when supported by
sound policy and targeted investment and
they also demonstrate the cooperation
which drives the innovation. However,
and sadly not all institutions kept
pace. In 2021, we saw the Asian
Development Bank proposing using
concessional finance to retire the Azen
coal plants, a plan that was completely
detached from regional needs and energy
realities. Azens Calfle as we all know
in this room is the youngest and one of
the most efficient in the world
averaging just that 13 years. Retiring
it would have wasted billions in
productive assets and more importantly
undermine regional energy security. So
today the rest of the world is beginning
to see what the Lazian has long
understood in the United States and I
just come from recent trips there. Once
among the loudest advocates of the coal
phase out, the government has now
committed 625 million um dollars to
modernize and upgrade its coal fleet as
part of its drive for energy resilience.
And a lot of that funding will go
towards actually upgrading on pollutant
control um and high the low emission
technology. And at the same time the
exclusionary finance models are also
collapsing. The net zero banking
alliance has formally closed its
operations after majors exited. Proof
that the financial systems cannot run on
this type of ideology. And around the
world, investors are rediscovering what
we have always said that responsible
investment, not divestment, delivers
real progress for economies, societies,
and the environment. And that reality
brings us to the responsible way
forward. And in future coal, we call
that sustainable coal stewardship or
SCS. SCES is built on this very simple
idea that progress is not about
abandoning the resources but using them
responsibly. It's a framework shaped by
governments, companies and communities
working together
to deploy these proven technologies, cut
emissions and most importantly unlock
new value across the coal value chain.
And China is well on this path and India
India follows closely behind.
Importantly, SCS is also about learning
from one another Asia's efficiency, the
United States innovation, and Europe's
experience, and applying those lessons
in ways that meet each nation's unique
challenges and opportunities. And that
is the spirit of cooperation that
defines the ASAN, diverse nations united
by shared purpose and pragmatic action.
And it is the same spirit that we hope
you will see defines SCS. And to show
what this looks like in practice, I'd
just like to share first part of a
three-part video which introduces SCS
and the technologies which drive
transformation across the coal value
chain. So we'll just cue to the um the
people that are going to help me with
could we please show the first part of
Thank you. As you've seen just in this
short snippet of the video, our industry
is harnessing cutting edge technologies
from autonomous holage and electric
drivetrains to digital twin operations
and precision monitoring. And these
innovations are improving efficiency,
reducing costs, and minimizing
environmental impacts. and certainly
along um across actually the world where
these sorts of opportunities don't
necessarily immediately exist. Um we
want we see there's a desire for more
collaboration to really upgrade and
modernize our upstream practices across
the Azian mining has long been that
catalyst for development building
infrastructure schools hospitals
creating thousands of jobs. This is the
same across the world for producing and
consuming regions of coal. And our joint
report with the Azen Center of Energy on
Coal's contribution to the United Nation
sustainable development goals shows that
our industry continues to prioritize
some of those main issues like health
and education and it empowers those
communities and strengthens
opportunities across the region. So
coal's contribution even in this in this
area of precombustion is undeniable. So
let's just move to the second pillar of
SCS which is combustion. And this
highlights advanced technologies that
can capture and reduce up to 99% of
emissions including CO2 while providing
the reliable dispatchable power that
modern economies um depend upon. And now
if we could please play the second part
Thank you. As we're aware, probably more
in this region than anywhere, people
don't really appreciate and a lot of the
um criticism of coal is really based on
old technology and not understanding
where the new technology is or what
efficiency in coal combustion can
actually bring to the table in terms of
better environmental performance. And
again another joint report with the Azen
Center of Energy Clinkole technology in
the Azen found that if we upgraded those
older plants to ultra supercritical
technology we could avoid 500 million
tons of CO2 by 2040 and as we would be
able to do all the maths ourselves.
That's the equivalent of removing 25
million cars off the road each year. So
across Asia, this transformation is
already underway and China is at the
forefront of this progress, operating
coalbased carbon capture for nearly 20
years. And its LDong Energy Base will
soon be the world's largest coal CCS
facility, capturing 1.5 million tons of
CO2 annually at less than USD,
$30 per ton, which is less than half the
cost of carbon permits in Europe. And in
Japan, Jira shows us that they've been
able to achieve 45% thermal efficiency
and completed the world's first 20%
ammonia co-firing trial, a breakthrough
in lowcarbon dispatchable energy. And
now in India, coal gasification is
scaling rapidly, producing high value
products while capturing carbon and
supporting national self-sufficiency.
So now in the final part of this video
we look at the exciting developments and
many of the areas that actually
investment community and particularly
those in the western world don't
appreciate about the contribution the
wider contribution of coal to beyond
combustion. Can we please play that the
Thank you. And whilst many of those
industries in beyond combustion are
known to us, there's so much more that's
turning byproducts into high value
materials and innovators around the
world. Particularly, there are leaders
actually in this in the US um in this
field and researchers at the University
of Wyoming have now built a home using
coalder derived char bricks that are
lighter, more insulative and lower in
emissions than conventional materials.
The US Department of Energy's coal to
cars program is developing coal derived
carbon fiber for lightweight vehicles. A
single ton of metallurgical coal is
worth about $200 um US dollars, but it
can be transformed into carbon fiber
worth up to 11,000 uh US dollars. So, as
demand for critical minerals grows,
research shows that coal ash could also
supply key elements for electronics,
defense, and renewable energy. And in
the United States alone, the recoverable
value of these minerals is estimated at
about 8.4 4 billion US, eight times the
current reserves. So coal is also
contributing to securing Azen's food
supply. And across Asia, coal
gasification is producing hydrogen for
fertilizer, helping to stabilize
agricultural import costs as natural gas
um prices fluctuate. and low rank coal
and its byproducts can also be used as
soil additives improving water and
nutrient retention and reducing
dependence on traditional fertilizers
these for droughtprone regions. This
means restoring degraded land um
strengthening harvesters and obviously
building greater resistance and
resilience. So the innovation is already
here. The technology is mostly proven.
And to realize Cole's full potential, we
now know that we must work together. And
if we do fail to act on the technologies
and opportunities already available
through SCS, we do risk not just higher
emissions, weaker grids, and slower
growth, but we risk that contribution to
our global communities to really expand
and keep. And for those of us who are
not fortunate enough to have that modern
life that we've so come to enjoy, the
future coal will be defined though by by
collaboration and by nations and
industries who are willing to work side
by side um to deliver energy security,
economic progress and also the
environmental results. These are not
things that we need to seek in isolation
of each other. These are things that we
can do together.
So today we will renew our partnership
with the Azian Center for Energy which
reflects that shared commitment to
continued progress through innovation,
cooperation and trust. I really look
forward to working with the Azen to now
push forward a new vision for coal call
sustainable coal stewardship or SCS. I
truly believe as someone who's been in
the industry and been the public global
advocate for coal in a time where we
weren't always um received well, but now
we be we're being received a little bit
more pragmat pragmatically. I look for
that future. I know that the word
sustainable has many different um new
meanings for lots of people and perhaps
has been overused, but what's most
important is that we continue to benefit
our global community. We all have more
in common than less. even in this crazy
world that we live in. Um, so this for
me and for future call and for
sustainable coal steward is the
responsible way forward. I thank you for
your time and thank you to the AV team
for helping me with those videos. Thank you.
That's okay. Okay. Thank you everyone.
Thank you Mr. Mu for delivering the
keynote um keynote address for this
session the vision for call's future.
Now uh we will meet you again during the
closing ceremony for the MOU. So yeah
thank you everyone and this close the
session in this room but we have other
sessions going on in another room. So if
you have time and you're interested to
know others uh thing about the energy in
the region please do come to other
rooms. So once again thank you everyone
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