ICMM indentifies fugitive emission issues for Australian carbon tax

Enviromine

Publishing Date: 09 Aug 2011 12:31pm GMT
Author: Mining, People and the Environment

Environmental Change Legal and Legislation

The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) has released a new policy brief outlining some of the specific challenges in regulating unintended or fugitive methane emissions from coal mines.

The guidelines have been released in response to the Australian government’s announcement in July of a carbon tax to be introduced next year.

The ICMM said the Australian government’s tax is the “first time any major coal exporting country has introduced a price on fugitive emissions”, an area that is not well understood outside the mining industry and primarily considered a safety issue.

Under the Australian scheme, coal companies will be required to pay for every tonne of fugitive emissions they emit from their operations. This is in addition to paying for their direct emissions, carbon costs passed on downstream from electricity generators and some transport emissions.

The ICMM summarised that there remain significant challenges in estimating and measuring fugitive emissions.

It adds: “placing a carbon price on fugitive emissions form coal mining when the abatement and mitigation options are not mature raises a number of financial, environmental and operational challenges for the coal industry.”

Mining companies are already investing in projects to utilise methane gas although there are technical and safety limits to what can be due to reduce fugitive emissions.