Burning coal cannot bring CO2 emissions to zero.

Judge as of 2010. The claim is that burning coal for energy cannot achieve zero CO2 emissions. True: technical sources show coal combustion releases CO2, and that even with carbon capture and storage (typically 85–95% capture) emissions do not reach zero. Mostly true: the same, but some sources show near-zero is achievable with CCS combined with additional measures (e.g. biomass co-firing), so the claim is slightly too absolute. Mixed: credible sources at the time disagreed on whether coal with CCS could reach effectively zero emissions. Mostly false: mainstream technical sources treated coal with CCS as effectively zero-emission. False: evidence shows coal combustion itself can be made fully zero-emission.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Clean coal - Greenlivingpedia Greenlivingpedia · 8 July 2009

   “The term is actually misleading as burning coal for energy will never result in zero emissions.”

2. E2 Clean coal - Greenlivingpedia Greenlivingpedia · 8 July 2009

   “Cannot capture all emissions from a power station so that even if widely used greenhouse emissions would not fall or stabilise but actually continue to increase”

3. E3 Cost and Performance of Carbon Dioxide Capture from Power Generation International Energy Agency (IEA), working paper by Matthias Finkenrath, hosted by OSTI · 2011

   “Published overall C02 capture rates are between 85% and 100%.”

I rated this mostly true because the sources broadly support the claim, but one IEA figure makes it look slightly too absolute. A 2009 Greenlivingpedia article says burning coal for energy "will never result in zero emissions" [E1], and that a power station cannot capture all of its emissions [E2]. However, an IEA working paper reports published CO2 capture rates of "between 85% and 100%" [E3], so some published figures put capture close to or at full. The sources here are thin: E1 and E2 come from a wiki-style site, and E3 is dated 2011, after the 2010 judging date.