| Abstract Title: | Forecast scenarios on the fate of mercury emissions from stationary coal combustion |
| Presenter Name: | Edward Archer |
| Company/Institution: | Macquarie University |
| Session: | Mercury Emissions: Monitoring and Analysis |
| Co-Authors: | Edward Archer |
Abstract Information :
Mercury is environmentally, an extremely harmful pollutant due to its toxicity, long range mobility, and persistence. Mercury emissions can not only cause localized harm, to which children and pregnant women are especially vulnerable, through air borne emissions or soil and water contamination, but also travel long distances that extend beyond national boundaries and have global impacts. The most recent Global Mercury Assessment (GMA) estimates that emissions from stationary combustion of coal accounts for 22.4% of all anthropogenic sources. There is thus a broad recognition that improvements to the coal sector will contribute to the objectives of the Minamata Convention by significantly reducing mercury emissions worldwide. However, there have been limited projects to demonstrate this emission reduction potential for countries. For this reason, the current project is aimed to perform a coal sectoral analysis that include the collection of existing strong scientific data to support the assessment of selected countries? reduction potential and future contribution of the coal sector to global mercury emissions. Although updated national pledges and policies are in place for some countries to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and beyond, it is possible that emerging markets and developing countries may not be able to make rapid shifts towards non-fossil fuel energy supply sources such as for the developed world. For this reason, a polarized future is predicted where emissions may follow a downward trajectory for some countries, but still rise for the foreseeable future in some if best available technologies and best environmental practices (BAT/BEP) are not implemented and maintained in emerging economies. The presentation will include early observations of the current state of emission reduction trajectories for India, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, and South Africa. The current state with national policies and commitments to the Paris Agreement, Minamata and Stockholm Conventions, as well as other avenues that need considerations for future emissions reduction scenarios will be discussed.
