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* Over 200 miners die in Turkish coal mine explosion
* Coal tops the list for deaths in energy sector
* Over 30,000 have died in coal accidents since 1970
* Coal is also a major polluter
* Investors demand higher standards
By Henning Gloystein
LONDON, May 14 (Reuters) - A coal mine explosion and firethat has killed over 200 people in Turkey coincides withincreased pressure on miners and utilities to drasticallyimprove safety and environmental standards for miners riskingtheir lives.
Coal mining is responsible for more fatalities than theproduction of any other energy source due to poor workingconditions in producing countries such as China, Turkey, SouthAfrica, Indonesia and Colombia. It is also a major worldpolluter.
The disaster in western Turkey, likely to be the country'sdeadliest, is still unfolding with hundreds believed to betrapped underground. It's also the worst in a series ofincidents in a sector that has seen 30,000 die since 1970.
A coal mine collapse in the U.S. state of West Virginiakilled two workers this week at a facility that had "chroniccompliance issues" and received numerous citations frominspectors last year.
Last month, two more workers were killed in Australia aftera supporting wall in a coal mine about 240 kilometres (150miles) west of Sydney gave way, trapping the two men about 500metres (1,640 feet) below the surface.
This deadly record is putting pressure on utilities fromshareholders to source their coal in a more ethical andenvironmentally friendly way to save thousands of miners andreduce pollution.
Despite its poor record, coal accounts for over 40 percentof global electricity generation as coal-fired power stationsare relatively cheap to build and operate.
SHAREHOLDER PRESSURE
Under scrutiny from major shareholders including Norway'ssovereign wealth fund, some energy companies have begun to takeaction, clubbing together to form the Bettercoal group toimprove their ethical, social and environmental standards.
"There is increasing awareness of coal's destruction... andalso understanding that alternatives are possible," said AilunYang, senior associate at the U.S. World Resources Institute.
The coal mining sector's dismal fatality record since 1970compares with 20,000 deaths in the oil sector and around 1,500in natural gas, according to estimates from the Paul ScherrerInstitute (PSI), a Swiss natural and engineering sciencesinstitute.
Other estimates are much higher with Hazardex, a specialistin safety information, saying that China's death toll alone isover 1,000 a year.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said last monththat air pollution, partly caused by burning coal, killed 7million people worldwide in 2012, making it the world's singlebiggest environmental health risk, and the WHO recommended "themovement away from dirtier fuels, such as coal".
LETTER TO THE POPE
Environmentalists, religious groups, academics, politiciansand scientists say the utilities and the banks which fund thecoal mining still have not done enough.
Norway's $817 billion sovereign wealth fund, the world'sbiggest, has halved its exposure to coal producers, and ChiefExecutive Yngve Slyngstad told Reuters in March it would furtherreview investments in the sector this year.
The fund has investments in mining majors such as BHPBilliton, Vale, Glencore Xstrata, and Anglo American, but has dropped Rio Tinto on ethicalgrounds. It is also invested in some 160 companies that use coalto generate power, such as French utility GdF Suez, andanother 190 companies that use coal to produce steel.
In the United States, Stanford University said this month itwill no longer use any of its $18.7 billion endowment to investin coal mining companies.
Late last year the United Nations' climate chief urged aradical clean-up of the coal industry, while religious groups inAustralia and North America wrote to the Pope in February,urging him to encourage banks to move their money out of coal.
Reacting to public pressure, several large financialinstitutions like the World Bank and the European Bank forReconstruction and Development have said they will curb fundingfor coal projects.
BETTER COAL?
The push for higher coal mining standards follows thesuccess of the fair trade standards for agricultural productssuch as coffee and chocolate and the campaign against the saleof diamonds mined in conflict areas.
Industry experts say a recent fall in coal prices providesan opportunity to push through a change in mining practices.
"Utilities and investors are in a good position to demandchange as there is a global coal oversupply, giving buyersmultiple choices to source their coal from," said one miningadviser who did not want to be named.
Coal prices have dropped around 40 percent in the past threeyears following a mining investment boom that has clashed withsluggish demand growth.
In Europe, a group of utilities which account for more thanhalf of the region's thermal coal imports has clubbed togetherto pressure for higher coal mining standards.
The Bettercoal group is made up of DONG Energy,EDF, GDF Suez, E.ON, RWE,Fortum, Gas Natural Fenosa, and Enel and started to assess mining companies for theirethical standards in April.
COAL USE STILL RISING
Despite international efforts to shift to cleaner and saferfuels, coal's share of energy generation is still increasing andglobal carbon dioxide emissions hit a record high last year.
Driven by rising use in emerging economies, coal could evensurpass oil as the main fuel for the global economy by 2020,energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie said.
This highlights the need to take urgent action to improveenvironmental standards, experts say.
In the West, a revolution in shale gas technology in theUnited States has triggered a switch from coal to cleanernatural gas, but it has also resulted in cheap coal exports toEurope where its share of the power generation mix has risendespite efforts to use more renewable power sources.
Chinese efforts to reduce its pollution from coal, rangefrom pushing its natural gas, renewable and nuclear powergeneration sectors as well as introducing particle filters andreducing the amount of high sulphur and low quality coal imports especially from Indonesia. (Additional reporting by Alexander Winning and Nina Chestney inLondon, Vera Eckert in Frankfurt and Gwladys Fouche in Oslo;Editing by Veronica Brown and Susan Thomas)
