Our Position on Climate Change
Our Position on Climate Change
In December 2015, 197 countries, including Russia, sent delegations to the United Nations Climate Change Conference, where participants supported a global agreement to address climate change by making cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Russia committed to restrict its anthropogenic GHG emissions to 70-75% of 1990 levels. Indeed, Russia has already fulfilled its obligations, cutting emissions by 49% including the carbon absorption capacity of its large forest territories. The Russian coal industry and coal-fired power generation have contributed to this progress, cutting CO2 emissions from thermal coal combustion by 50% compared to 1990 levels.
At SUEK, we recognise that the production of coal and coal-fired generation are associated with GHG emissions, and we are deeply aware of our responsibilities to help preserve the Earth’s environment for current and future generations. As a major coal producer, we also recognise our responsibility to continue providing the energy people need.
In our view, environmental problems are part of a complex and multi-faceted scientific and sustainable development agenda. It’s an agenda that also embraces the need to support economic development and to help to improve the quality of life of billions of people in developing nations. As the most affordable and widely available fuel on Earth, coal will long be a vital and cost-effective resource to meet rising demand for energy across the world.
In our view, environmental problems are part of a complex and multi-faceted scientific and sustainable development agenda. It’s an agenda that also embraces the need to support economic development and to help to improve the quality of life of billions of people in developing nations. As the most affordable and widely available fuel on Earth, coal will long be a vital and cost-effective resource to meet rising demand for energy across the world.
We will therefore:
- research and invest in technologies that improve the efficiency and safety of our production processes;
- continue to implement measures aimed at further decreasing our own emissions, including the use of methane captured from our mines for energy generation;
- invest in our washing capacity to reduce ash and increase calorific value to decrease emissions during combustion;
- work in partnership with our peer group to meet shared targets for reduced emissions across the coal industry.
Our environmental strategy
With the consolidation of the energy business in 2018, we were able to extend environmental safety corporate controls to all stages of our operational cycle, from mining to energy generation. We aim to minimise environmental impact from our operational activities and the use of our products. We introduce best available technologies of methane utilisation, water treatment and dust suppression. We focus on development of high-calorific deposits and coal washing to minimise dust and GHG emissions from our products during their transportation and combustion. We also focus on reducing polluting emissions at generating facilities. In 2020, we continued to reduce water consumption from both surface and underground sources. At our generating facilities, water resources are mainly used for the cooling of equipment, which does not affect the quality of the water.
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