Thirty years ago, on this day, March 23, 1993, the UK government released its “The Prospects for Coal” White Paper
Main conclusions were:
subsidy to be offered to bring extra tonnage down to world market prices,
no pit to be closed without being offered to the private sector,
no changes to the gas and nuclear sectors,
increased investment in clean coal technology,
regeneration package for mining areas increased to £200 million
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 358.6ppm. As of 2023 it is 419ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had defeated the miners’unions using the police, MI5, the media and so on. Coal mines were being closed, left and right. And mining communities were being torn apart. It was unclear what if any future coal had in the energy mix. And of course, by this time, greenhouse gas concerns were present. And so the white paper comes out in that backdrop and the hope is that there will be such a thing as “clean coal.”
And by 1993 the IEA was organising symposia on clean coal and sequestration and set forth why we needed it (AOY links).
What I think we can learn from this
Technologies that are on the backfoot especially if they are long lasting, don’t go down without a fight as a real rearguard action. And Bruno Turnheim wrote an entire PhD thesis about this.
What happened next
Coal continued to dwindle, looked like it might possibly make a comeback, and then didn’t.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs..