Australia
accelerates coal mine projects in the face of study that finds it
should stay buried
Research
finds more than 80% of reserves should stay in the ground to avoid
dangerous climate change, just as Australia expands production
7
January, 2015
Australia
is pressing ahead with huge new coalmining projects, just as a new
study has calculated that more
than 80% of the world’s current coal reserves must remain in the
ground to
avoid dangerous climate change.
The
research, by the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources,
found that globally a third of all oil reserves, half of all known
gas deposits and 82% of coal capacity would have to remain unused by
2050 if the world was to remain within an internationally agreed
limit of 2C warming compared with pre-industrial times.
The
report found the world needed to stay within a carbon dioxide
“budget” of 1,100 gigatonnes emitted between 2011 and 2050 to
have at least a 50% chance to avoid more than 2C warming.
That
level of warming is considered to have highly damaging consequences
for human health, coastal infrastructure, food production and
endangered species.
Despite
its commitment to the 2C warming limit, Australia is pushing ahead
with a massive escalation in its coal output, with prime minister
Tony Abbott declaring
in October that
coal is “good for humanity” while warning against any
“demonisation” of the fossil fuel.
Nine
new coal projects are earmarked for the Galilee Basin region of
centralQueensland,
producing a combined 330m tonnes a year at capacity.
This
coal, destined for export to countries such as China and India, would
produce an estimated 705m
tonnes of CO2 when burned – substantially more than Australia’s
entire annual greenhouse gas emissions of 542m
tonnes.
Several
international financial institutions have rejected funding
the largest of the Galilee Basin mines, Adani’s Carmichael project,
but the Queensland government has stepped in to provide
taxpayers’ money for
construction, citing the jobs the mine would create.
Tim
Buckley, the director of energy finance studies at the Institute
for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis,
said the Australian government’s energy policies “fly in the
face” of the need to avoid digging up the vast majority of known
coal reserves.
“Rather
than acknowledge the problem and transition energy sources over
time,Tony
Abbott is
wedded to an idea of digging up coal as fast as possible before we’re
not allowed to do so, which is a globally irresponsible position,”
he told Guardian Australia.
“At
the current price of thermal coal, the profit margin is zero. It
makes no sense to sponsor these projects when the world is awash with
coal. Why is Queensland providing millions of dollars to projects
that aren’t commerciallly viable? Why does a project funded by a
foreign billionaire need taxpayer subsidy?”
Buckley
said Abbott’s argument that coal could lift people in developing
countries out of poverty was “a highly embarrassing parroting of a
coal industry PR campaign”.
Victoria
McKenzie-McHarg, climate campaigner at the Australian Conservation
Foundation, said Australia was “completely out of kilter” with
the required action to avoid dangerous climate change.
“Tony
Abbott and [Queensland premier] Campbell Newman have bent over
backwards to push through coal projects and side with polluting
mining companies over the need to protect Australians from climate
change,” she said.
“If
we become the greedy polluter, it puts unfair pressure on developing
nations to cut their emissions when Australia has been one of the
largest polluters for so long. We have a responsibility to clean up
our act and take advantage of our real natural resources, such as
wind and solar.”
But
the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) disputed the findings of the
report, stating that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change made
it clear last yearthat
carbon capture and storage technology would ensure that fossil fuels
could remain widely sed.
“The
report’s apparent conclusions are at odds with a series of recent
forecasts by a range of respected international bodies, including the
International EnergyAgency
and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,” said Brendan
Pearson, chief executive of the MCA.
“Those
reports show that addressing climate change, eradicating energy
poverty and a continued strong future for Australia’s energy sector
are not mutually exclusive goals.”
Pearson
said the International Energy Agency’s 2014 outlook showed that the
global coal trade was set to grow by 40% by 2040, with Australia
forecast to regain its ranking as the world’s top coal exporter by
2030.
According
to the UCL institute’s paper, published in Nature, companies spent
$670bn last year searching for and securing new fossil fuel deposits.
The research was funded by the UK Energy Research Centre.
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