In 2024, global coal consumption reached a record high, with commercial banks investing more than $130 billion across Asia, the US and Europe.. (Paul Botes)
The newly-appointed chairperson of lobby group FutureCoal, has sent an urgent appeal to global financial leaders, urging them to fund coal “fairly and equally”.
“I write to you with a clear and urgent message: It is time to fund coal, metallurgical and modern, low-emission thermal coal, fairly and equally,” Mike Teke, who is also the chief executive of Seriti Resources, wrote in his open letter.
He argued that coal remains the world’s largest single source of electricity, meeting 33% of global demand. In 2024, global coal consumption reached a record high, with commercial banks investing more than $130 billion across Asia, the US and Europe.
“This is not just a measure of demand, it reflects coal’s enduring role in national and energy security, industrial resilience, and sustainable economic growth,” he said. “Yet in many policy and investment frameworks, coal is still excluded or unfairly treated.
“This approach ignores its irreplaceable role in industries like steel, cement and fertiliser, and its potential to deliver significant emissions reductions when paired with modern technologies.”
Teke highlighted FutureCoal’s Sustainable Coal Stewardship framework, which presents a “pragmatic, technology-led pathway for coal’s transformation, claiming it can reduce coal emissions by up to 99% across the value chain.
Pre-combustion emissions could be cut using artificial intelligence, drones and autonomous mining vehicles, combustion emissions with high-efficiency, low-emission (Hele) plants, carbon capture and storage and coal gasification, as well as post-combustion effects through coal-to-hydrogen, ammonia production and conversion of coal waste into critical minerals, carbon fibre and graphene.
“These solutions are already being deployed in China, India, Japan, South Africa, the United States and others, demonstrating that when supported by investment and policy, coal can deliver both economic growth and environmental progress,” wrote Teke.
He said the “Fund Fair. Fund Equal” campaign builds on FutureCoal chief executive Michelle Manook’s “earlier call to you to evaluate thermal coal on the same basis as metallurgical coal. There is no practical reason nor credible justification to exclude responsibly stewarded coal from funding”.
“We are not seeking to replace renewables, but to ensure all resources are recognised for their current and future potential in the global energy mix. The energy transition must be inclusive, pragmatic, and fact-based.”
Teke urged the leaders in banking, investment, and insurance to be “bold, informed, and united in ensuring that this vital resource continues to serve the global community responsibly and effectively”.
False narratives
But 13 civil society organisations have responded sharply to FutureCoal’s “false claims about coal”. They include Just Share, the Centre for Environmental Rights, the African Climate Alliance, Fossil Free SA, groundWork and Natural Justice.
“The climate science is clear: the time to decarbonise is now,” they said in a joint response. “To stand a chance of meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement, global emissions must halve by 2030. Coal lobbying body FutureCoal, however, is deploying false narratives claiming that coal can be ‘sustainable’, including most recently in its ‘Fund Fair. Fund Equal’ open letter.”
They said Teke’s argument distorts the facts to justify an extended lifespan for an industry whose social and environmental licence to operate has expired.
“Financial institutions have reduced or excluded financing to coal not on ideological grounds, but because they recognise that coal is the primary driver of the climate crisis, that alternative energy sources are cheaper and cleaner and that investing in stranded assets is bad for their balance sheets.”
According to the International Energy Agency, aligning with 1.5°C warming requires thermal coal production to fall by 91% and metallurgical coal by 88% by 2050. The civil society groups said coal companies have only two viable paths: diversify away from coal, or wind down operations responsibly in line with climate science.
They also rejected FutureCoal’s claim that coal is treated unfairly, noting fossil fuels already receive huge support such as tax breaks, low-interest loans and underpriced energy.
Global fossil fuel subsidies hit $7 trillion in 2022, while South Africa’s tripled to R118 billion from 2018 to 2023. “The claim of unfair treatment for coal is wholly unfounded,” they said.
The civil society groups said that in the face of this reality, FutureCoal’s campaign is an appeal by those with a vested interest in delaying climate action for continued funding “to an outdated, destructive industry whose existence is fundamentally misaligned with the achievement of a just transition”.
No such thing as ‘clean coal’
They emphasised that FutureCoal’s claims that technological innovation will transform the coal industry into a long-term clean energy source by addressing its major effects at all points in the value chain fundamentally misrepresents both the current state of technology and the urgency of climate action.
It also ignores crucial technological and financial constraints that cast doubt on the viability of the proposed solutions.
Carbon capture, use and storage or CCUS technology remains commercially unproven at scale. They cited a 2022 report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, which studied 13 flagship large-scale carbon capture projects. They accounted for about 55% of the total worldwide operational capture capacity at the time. The report found that most projects had failed or underperformed.
Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2024 are estimated at 37.4 billion tonnes. As of November 2024, however, operational commercial CCUS facilities captured only about 0.14% of this (about 51 million tonnes of CO2 annually).
“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change finds that there are no scenarios in which CCUS would allow continued use of fossil fuels at current levels, let alone permit any expansion.”
Earlier this month, research published in Nature, revealed the danger of greenhouse gases escaping back into the atmosphere after being injected underground.
“They concluded that due to risks such as earthquakes, engineering faults or territorial conflicts, less than 1 500 gigatonnes of CO2 can be safely stored — dramatically lower than earlier estimates of up to 40 000 gigatonnes,” the civil society groups said.
While Hele coal plants can offer cleaner, more efficient coal power generation when compared with conventional coal plants, they do not eliminate emissions or environmental impacts.
“However, the rising competitiveness and affordability of renewable energy, climate policies targeting greenhouse gas emissions, and the extremely high capital costs of Hele technology undermine the argument for large-scale development of Hele plants.”
So-called “clean coal” technologies cannot deliver the emissions reductions required for climate stability within the necessary timeframes, they said in their joint response.
“The claim that the coal industry can be transformed through sustainable coal stewardship is a deliberate attempt to greenwash coal’s impacts to extend the life of coal assets and delay climate action.
Continued investment in coal resources and infrastructure is an untenable risk to the global economy.
“Coal remains the world’s most polluting fuel. It poses the risk of stranded assets and amplifies the impact of physical climate risks.
“Allocating capital away from fossil fuel resources towards low-carbon alternatives is an existential necessity. Accelerating the phase-out of coal is an important part of this process and a significant transitional investment opportunity.”