ABSTRACT
In 2006 it was estimated that global recoverable reserves of coal amounted to 905 billion tonnes (gigatonnes) according to the US Energy Information Administration 2008. The World Coal Institute estimates that this will last 147 years at current rates of consumption. According the Hermann Scheer, environmentalist member of the German Bundestag, when coal is substituted for gas and oil, reserves will be exhausted well before 2100 (Scheer, 2002, p100). Since he wrote his book, estimates of reserves have increased, but so also have the expectations for synthetic fuels. The organization World Energy Outlook has compiled a graph of coal reserves by region up to 2100. It suggests that peak coal will be reached by 2025. This may prove optimistic (Figure 13.1). World coal reserves to 2100 https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781849774390/e6bf99a4-475a-40b5-857f-b7d6daefa20d/content/fig13_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Note: The International Energy Agency (IEA) has created a mathematical construct, the World Energy Model, which is designed to replicate how energy markets function. It is the basis of World Energy Outlook's annual assessments. WEO 2009 was published in November. Source: World Energy Outlook.
