{"id":69,"date":"2021-10-23T17:24:16","date_gmt":"2021-10-23T16:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/econyq.com\/news\/?p=69"},"modified":"2021-10-23T17:24:16","modified_gmt":"2021-10-23T16:24:16","slug":"climate-change-why-australia-refuses-to-give-up-coal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/dev-econyq.com\/news\/climate-change-why-australia-refuses-to-give-up-coal\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change: Why Australia refuses to give up coal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It is one of the dirtiest countries per head of population and a massive global supplier of fossil fuels. Unusually for a rich nation, it also still burns coal for most of its electricity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Australia’s 2030 emissions target – a 26% cut on 2005 levels – is half the US and UK benchmarks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Canberra has also resisted joining the two-thirds of countries who have pledged net zero emissions by 2050.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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And instead of phasing out coal – the worst fossil fuel – it’s committed to digging for more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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So it’s no surprise that Australia is being viewed as a “bad guy” going into the COP26 global climate talks in Glasgow, analysts say.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government is under huge pressure to do more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Loyalty to the industry<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Mining has helped drive Australia’s economy for decades, and coal remains the country’s second-biggest export.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Only Indonesia sells more coal than Australia globally.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The government often credits coal for much of the country’s wealth, but many analysts argue this is overblown.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Coal exports totalled A$55bn (\u00a329bn; $40bn) last year, but most of this wealth was kept by mining companies. Less than a tenth went to Australia directly – that’s about 1% of national revenue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The coal workforce of 40,000 is about half the size of McDonald’s in Australia. But coal jobs do sustain some rural communities.<\/p>\n

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The\u00a0mining sector has always wielded influence<\/a>\u00a0in Canberra.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Though\u00a0most voters want tougher climate action<\/a>, some coal towns lie in swing constituencies that are key to winning elections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The mining lobby has “distorted” much policy over the years, says Prof Samantha Hepburn, a climate law expert at Deakin University.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The current government dismantled Australia’s emissions trading scheme in 2014, shortly after winning power in a campaign heavily backed by mining interests.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It’s never again tried to put a price on carbon, or to restrict emissions from fossil fuel producers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Instead it’s provided extra support to coal. This includes:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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  • Approving new mines and extensions:<\/b>\u00a0There are over 80 proposed projects including plant upgrades<\/li>\n
  • Tax subsidies:\u00a0<\/b>About A$10bn went to fossil fuel companies last year alone<\/li>\n
  • ‘Clean coal’ investments:<\/b>\u00a0Schemes such as carbon capture and storage, often criticised as ineffective<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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    Chasing a shrinking market<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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    Australia argues coal will continue to generate national wealth for decades to come.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    It talks up demand in Asia, particularly from industrialising economies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    China and India alone account for 64% of global coal consumption. Demand in Indonesia and Vietnam has also surged.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    But analysts say there’s no long-term market as countries race to meet emissions goals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In a world racing to reduce pollution, Australia is a stark outlier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dev-econyq.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dev-econyq.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dev-econyq.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dev-econyq.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dev-econyq.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/dev-econyq.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71,"href":"http:\/\/dev-econyq.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions\/71"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dev-econyq.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dev-econyq.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dev-econyq.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dev-econyq.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}