Madeleine Suska, industry pioneer and geologist, honoured by Coal Association of Canada

Madeleine Suska and company — Courtesy of the family of Madeleine Suska

The Coal Association of Canada (CAC) recently named Western Canadian geologist Madeleine Suska as the winner of the association’s 2016 Award of Distinction. The CAC Award of Distinction recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional accomplishments in the coal industry in Canada.

Suska has been mapping, planning, negotiating and promoting the coal industry since the 1950s, and is still active today.

Born in Poland, Suska graduated with a bachelor of science degree from the University of London. Starting in the oil and gas industry as a sedimentary geologist who made many successful discoveries and predictions, Suska moved on to field exploration and mapping. She later completed a master of science in geology degree at the University of Alberta.

Now retired and living in Calgary, Suska used to take months-long horseback trips into the unmapped and unexplored lands of northeastern British Columbia and the eastern slopes of Alberta. While on these expeditions, she discovered and mapped major coal fields in both provinces.

Her discoveries led to decades of further exploration and development, including the mining of the Northeast British Columbia Coal Block, which contains the well-known Tumbler Ridge area.

Suska received her award at a banquet at the Coal Association of Canada 2016 conference, which took place in June at the Westin Bayshore in Vancouver.

Speakers at the three-day event included such industry luminaries as Neil Bristow, principal/managing consultant of H&W Worldwide Consulting; Robert Bell, executive chairman of Atrum Coal NL; Ken Brophy, vice-president, sustainable development of Ram River Coal Corp.; and David Hobbs, an adjunct professor at the University of Calgary and head of research at the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center in Saudi Arabia.

Hobbs spoke on the prospects for metallurgical and thermal coal consumption in the wake of the recent Paris Agreement.

Signed in late 2015, the accord is an agreement within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that deals with the adaptation and financing of measures to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The agreement takes effect four years from now, in 2020.

After the language of the treaty had been negotiated in December 2015, representatives of 195 countries signed on.

Madeleine Suska — Courtesy of the family of Madeleine Suska

As of June 2016, 178 convention members have signed the treaty, although not enough of them have ratified it for it to enter into force.

Hobbs said the accord depends on voluntary compliance of the multitude of members for it to be effective.

“All of the signatories to the Paris Agreement agreed to police themselves and to make their own environmental commitments, instead of signing onto a single global framework,” said Hobbs.

The idea behind the agreement is for each signatory to find its own lowest-cost method of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions.

“Because the Paris Agreement didn’t impose a single way on everyone, each signatory can work on its own commitment,” Hobbs said. “Everyone has a role to play.”

The agreement will be revisited every five years.

“It is hoped there will be a gradual ratcheting-up process, so that, over time, all of the climate goals will be met,” he said.

Hobbs said that although the use of coal declined in 2015, it is still a significant source of energy around the world.

“At the moment, China is the largest producer and consumer of coal used to generate electricity, but it has stopped growing as quickly as it did in the past,” he said.

Other big coal producers and consumers are the United States, Indonesia, Australia and Russia.

The 2016 conference attracted about 150 attendees, who came mostly from Canada, the U.S., Japan and China, said CAC president Robin Campbell.

“That was a little fewer than in 2015, but we expected the decline, because of the weakened state of the global coal industry,” Campbell said.

The theme of this year’s conference was coal and the new economy.

The next CAC conference takes place in September 2017 in Vancouver.

King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center

Saudi Arabia is home to not only a lot of gushing oil wells, but also the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC).

Ironically, in a country awash in petroleum, the objective of the centre is “to develop sustainable economic frameworks that lead to lower costs of energy supply; higher value created from energy consumption; and alignment of energy policy objectives and outcomes.”

KAPSARC was founded as a non-profit institution for the independent research of the economics of energy and, it says, to contribute to societal well-being and prosperity.

According to the KAPSARC website, “Affordable, sustainable energy underpins the growth of a country’s economy and the well-being of its citizens. Yet effective energy policy is one of the greatest challenges for governments and other stakeholders across the globe.”

Saudi Arabia is home to not only a lot of gushing oil wells, but also the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC).

Ironically, in a country awash in petroleum, the objective of the centre is “to develop sustainable economic frameworks that lead to lower costs of energy supply; higher value created from energy consumption; and alignment of energy policy objectives and outcomes.”

KAPSARC was founded as a non-profit institution for the independent research of the economics of energy and, it says, to contribute to societal well-being and prosperity.

According to the KAPSARC website, “Affordable, sustainable energy underpins the growth of a country’s economy and the well-being of its citizens. Yet effective energy policy is one of the greatest challenges for governments and other stakeholders across the globe.”