Burn coal and save the environment?

Old King Coal has had - and continues to have - a very bad press (and a very bad press has he!). However, in a provocative lecture at the University of Leicester, Professor Paul L Younger of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne will argue that a new approach to coal exploitation probably represents the world's last and best chance of bridging the gulf to a genuinely low carbon future.

Professor Younger - a hydrogeochemical engineer with decades of experience in the mining and energy sectors - commented: 'The protestors cluster around Kingsnorth and Drax power stations; opencast developments that are relatively modest compared to those previously undertaken in Britain arouse storms of controversy; and the handful of remaining deep mines struggle to expand even when market prices for coal reach historic heights. So isn't Old King Coal dead and buried? And isn't it a case of 'good riddance'?'

In his lecture, 'King Coal: Time for restoration of the mucky monarch?,' Professor Younger will argue otherwise, ranging widely over the issues of climate change, renewable energy technology development, 'peak oil,' nuclear power and the troubled concept of economic growth.

In particular, he asserts, underground coal gasification with carbon capture and storage (UCG-CCS) offers the UK a phenomenal opportunity to lead the world in using the energy locked up in coal whilst ensuring that almost all of the CO2 arising is safely stowed in the deep subsurface, in purpose-engineered voids which do not suffer from the physical limitations of most deep saline aquifers currently posited as targets for carbon capture and storage projects.

Professor Younger is known as an inspiring and exceptional speaker who can connect with any audience and injects a great deal of humour into his presentations.

He is Director of the Sir Joseph Swan Institute for Energy Research and Public Orator at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne and an acknowledged expert on water, energy and the environment.

After gaining a first class honours degree in Geology from the University of Newcastle he became Harkness Fellow of the Commonwealth Fund of New York, taking a Masters degree in Hydrogeology at Oklahoma State University. In 1986 he returned to Newcastle, where he gained a PhD in Numerical Modelling of Water Resource Systems.

During the course of his career, Professor Younger has worked as a hydrogeologist with the National Rivers Authority (1989-91) and a groundwater engineer with the United Nations Association, La Paz in Bolivia (1991-2).

At the University of Newcastle he was first a Lecturer, then a Reader in the Department of Civil Engineering (1999-2001). In 2001 he became Professor of Hydrogeochemical Engineering at the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at Newcastle, until in 2004 he became HSBC Professor of Energy and Environment, and in 2007 took up his current post as Director of the Joseph Swan Institute for Energy Research.

In July 2007 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng). Most recent among a long list of honours and achievements is that of International Orator for the Testimonial Ceremony at the Escuela de Minas, Madrid, for the Award to Prof Rafael Fernandez Rubio of the Premio Rey Jaime I del Medio Ambiente. This is the Spanish-speaking world's principal prize for environmental protection, with prize money equal to that of Nobel Prizes. Professor Younger's oration was delivered in Spanish.

Professor Younger was leader of the team which won the University of Newcastle Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher Education in February 2006. He has also been invited to be the UK representative on the European Expert Panel on Geothermal Energy of the European Federation of Geologists. Widely published in his field, he has appeared on the television and radio numerous times and twice was the subject of BBC Radio 4's 'Changing Places' programme.