FT: Iberdrola chief sees coal losing out to gas and renewable energy

Coal’s dominance of the global energy mix is set to fade as economic and climate change pressures drive more gas and renewable power, according to the head of one of the world’s biggest utilities.

“Coal is the least environmentally efficient technology,” Ignacio Galán, chairman and chief executive of Spain’s Iberdrola, told a clean energy event in Qatar on Wednesday.

The fuel’s 40 per cent share of global electricity generation means it is responsible for a large share of the rising carbon dioxide emissions governments are supposed to address by forging an “absolutely necessary” international climate agreement in Paris in 2015, he added.  MORE