Dirty Old Coal is back on the agenda. Due to public and goverments’ panic around soaring oil prices (which seem to be on the decline again), there are plans the world over for more coal-fired power plants: India has plans to build another 73 coal plants in the next 10 years. There are plans to build over 150 new coal plants in the US in the next few years and my understanding is that China, Germany and the UK all have coal plants somewhere in the pipeline.

The world seem to be divided today between those who wants to go 150 years back and those advocating to invest all our resources in developing green and clean energy technologies. After reading few articles on this topic I must admit I’m rather confused. Coal has a high potential in future energy supply, only once new technology to reduce CO2-emissions from coal combustion will become economically viable. But currently they aren’t and the fact of the matter is that 40% of the global carbon dioxide emissions are due to coal.

If you want to read more on this subject you should read the debate between George Monbiot and Arthur Scargill few months back in the Guardian. The EU Energy Policy Blog also written some illuminating facts about the future of coal-based energy.

The reason for this lengthy introduction is a new Greenpeace campaign. Inspiring, engaging environmental campaigns are difficult to pull out. Especially these days, when the economic meltdown is contributing to the already short and fatigued attention span of the general public in relation to green issues you have to produce something that will stand out and cut through and I think that Greenpeace have managed to pull a nifty little campaign called….CoalFinger:

The campaign is topical and full of funny moments and the microsite is nicely designed with clear, plain English articulation of the problem.

Well done Greenpeace.