Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

With the smokestacks and coal silos of the UNC co-generation plant as a backdrop, climate change researcher James Hansen joined students, university scientists and members of the Sierra Club’s Coal Free Campus campaign on Tuesday to ask the university to end the use of coal at the plant.

José Rial, a professor in the department of geological sciences, said his work in the Arctic compelled him to speak out. A glaciologist, Rial said he has seen new research that shows an even faster sea level rise than previously predicted.

“I don’t know about this plant,” he said, gesturing to the Cameron Avenue facility, “but I know what’s happening in the arctic as a consequence of thousands of plants like these.”

Stewart Boss, a freshman at UNC and one of the local organizers of the coal-free campus campaign, said he wants to see UNC maintain its leadership in environmental responsibility.

Future generations will hold today’s leaders responsible, he said.

Pat Leighton, who lives near the co-generation plant, noted that Duke University cut its coal consumption by 70 percent last year, while UNC’s plan calls for phasing out 20 percent of its coal use by 2025.

“I want to see UNC compete with Duke in this arena as well as on the basketball court,” Leighton said.

The university released a Climate Action Plan in September of last year. It’s near-term strategy called for replacing 20 percent of coal with torrefied wood or another coal substitute.

And while the plan, and the fact that the school had developed a strategy, drew praise, environmentalists raised concerns that it did not go far enough.

Hansen said the focus on coal makes sense because of how dirty a fuel it is and the degradation that’s been caused by mining practices — especially mountaintop removal in Appalachia — and because much cleaner alternatives are available.

“Global climate change,” he said, “”is an issue of intergenerational injustice.”

The United States, he said, must be a leader among developed countries in ending coal use.

“We really need to take the lead in phasing out coal, and our universities should be taking the lead in that,” Hansen said.

Hansen was on campus as part of a speaking tour on climate change.

Prior to his visit, UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp announced a new 35-member energy task force headed up by Tim Toben, who is developing the Greenbridge project and is chair of the state’s Energy Policy Council.

The task force has been charged with evaluating UNC’s carbon-reduction plans and learning what other universities are doing.

Hansen said he was encouraged by the new task force.

“I am heartened that the university is responding in a positive way,” he said.