World Coal Study

Introduction to the World Coal Study

Between 1974 and 1977 Carroll Louis Wilson, Mitsui Professor of Problems of Contemporary Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, organized and directed the Workshop on Alternative Energy Strategies (WAES)-a three-year study in which seventy-five people from fifteen countries examined global energy prospects to the year 2000. The WAES final report called for an immediate effort to wean the world economy from its dependence on oil and identified only two energy sources-coal and nuclear power-that could serve as substitutes before the year 2000. As there was great uncertainty about nuclear energy, it became evident that coal should be examined more closely. Towards this end, Wilson organized the World Coal Study-WOCOL-(originally termed the Coal Trade Study - COTRA) in 1978, which involved over eighty people from sixteen major coal using and producing countries (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Netherlands/UK, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, West Germany). The members convened several times during an eighteen-month period to develop and present an assessment of coal’s potential to meet world energy needs.

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