22 per cent of CO2 abatement by 2035, more than the deployment of renewable energy and far more than by switching to nuclear. Without CCUS, the IEA says that the climate change mitigation effort will be as much as 70 per cent more expensive, or as much as an additional US$4.7 trillion in mitigation costs. Governments in the US, Europe, China and Australia have all announced significant support for demonstrating CCUS technology, but more action is needed to reach the IEA's target of 100 projects active by 2020. There have been major developments in CCUS deployment in recent years in the world's two largest energy consumers and producers, China and the United States. In China, a US$1 billion project is underway to build a high-efficiency, low-emission coal plant fitted with CCUS near the city of Tianjin. Construction started on the GreenGen project in June 2009 and its phased implementation is due to see a 400MW low carbon coal-fired electricity plant operating by 2018. The project is the result of significant joint investments by the Chinese Government, Huaneng Energy, the Shenhua Group, China National Coal Group and Peabody Energy, the world's largest private sector coal company, and other Chinese partners. GreenGen's CO2 offtake will be deployed initially in Bohai Bay for enhanced oil recovery (EOR).Clean coal projects with CCUS are also becoming a reality in the United States. The Texas Clean Energy Project is currently building a 200MW coal fired power plant and plans to be selling low carbon electricity by 2015. This plant using coal gasification technology will emit less than 10 per cent of the CO2 of a conventional coal plant and less than a quarter of the CO2 of a natural gas plant. Importantly this plant also has other technologies included that eradicate emissions sulphur dioxide and mercury. Demonstrating an important innovation to make CCUS commercially viable, the captured carbon from this plant will be utilised for EOR as well.Both GreenGen and the Texas project will boost clearly needed new sources of oil for China, the United States and the world even as the commercial viability of carbon capture and use projects for other countries and applications is established. The world may be short of easily accessible low sulphur crude oil but it is not short of coal. Coal-to-liquid projects with CO2 deployed for EOR will materially increase needed transportation fuels with excellent emission profiles to continue to power the world economy. Deploying advanced coal-fired power generation and CCUS in developing countries will be a key means of delivering cleaner base-load energy to those who need it most, meeting a basic human right. According to the IEA, there are currently 1.3 billion people worldwide who lack access to electricity, and around 2.7 billion who lack access to clean cooking fuels.Right: Milton Catelin Far right: Fredrick D. Palmer" Coal will play a crucial role in bringing energy to those who do not have access to it "064 clean coal technologyFigure 2: global energy poverty

The United Nations has declared 2012 as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All and energy access is a key issue for discussion at Rio+20. One of the issues to be discussed at the summit will be progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals agreed at the Millennium Summit in New York in 2000. There has been too little progress in achieving those goals, and the focus needs to move to energy supply, meaning coal. Also achieving many of those goals requires access to electricity and yet there is no energy access target under the Millennium Development Goals. How the world addresses this gap will be a key outcome for the Rio Summit. Coal will play a crucial role in bringing energy to those who do not have access to it. According to the IEA, more than half of the on-grid electricity additions needed to meet its energy for all target will come from coal. Coal is the essential resource in many developing countries. For example, in South Africa coal is being used to bring electricity to some of the 12.5 million people, 25 per cent of the South African population, who lack it. This electricity will help address the fact that half of South Africa's population lives in poverty. What many observers do not highlight about the IEA's energy access targets however is that it would only bring enough electricity to meet the immediate challenge for the world's poor. According to the IEA its target would "in rural areas . provide for the use of a floor fan, a mobile telephone and two compact fluorescent light bulbs for about five hours per day. In urban areas, consumption might also include an efficient refrigerator, a second mobile telephone per house and another appliance, such as a small television or a computer." This does not account for the electricity needed to power major social infrastructure such as schools and hospitals. Even more importantly it does not provide the electricity needed to fuel business and industry to drive the economic development so desperately needed to create the jobs that would truly lead to increases in prosperity and the genuine eradication of poverty.So while the IEA has a new focus on energy access, its view is limited and the IEA needs to expand its pro-people horizon. Every human on earth has the right to live as well as citizens of countries in the developed world. None of us in the developed world would accept the IEA's limits on access to electricity.To meet this substantial need for electricity, significant additions to base-load power generation will need to be made in developing countries. This will require significant investments in clean coal technology to provide electricity needed to fuel this economic development. With international support, this increase in coal-fired power supply can be done consistent with climate objectives. International institutions such as the World Bank and other development banks, the Clean Development Mechanisms and the Green Climate Fund must all provide support for the deployment of advanced coal-fired power generation and CCUS technology. The world faces significant climate and energy challenges and all technologies have a role to play in addressing these challenges. It is clear though that in this space coal will be front and centre in global efforts to mitigate climate change and to provide real energy access to those who currently struggle without it, allowing more people to live longer and live better. nFor more information please visit: www.worldcoal.org Follow WCA on Twitter: @WorldCoalAbout the AuthorsFred Palmer is Chairman of the WCA and Senior Vice President of Government Relations at Peabody Energy. He is responsible for advancing US government and global policy, unlocking coal's potential as the world's future fuel. A member of the National Coal Council, Executive Committee, and Chairman, Coal Policy Committee, he is also on the Board of Directors of the FutureGen Alliance.Milton Catelin is Chief Executive of the World Coal Association. He has worked with the UN Environment Programme as Chief of Partnerships & Public Affairs, and was a chief negotiator for Australia on both the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change (1996 - 1998) and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. He also served on Tony Blair's "Breaking the Deadlock" climate change initiative." According to the IEA, there are currently 1.3 billion people worldwide who lack access to electricity, and around 2.7 billion who lack access to clean cooking fuels "clean coal technology 065