Former UN Climate Chief Says World Doesn't Need Australia's 'Toxic' Coal

Fairfax - Nicole Hasham

Former United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres has repudiated Australian mining giant BHP for its refusal to stop mining coal, suggesting the decision is uneconomic and poor nations do not need the “toxic” and “expensive” fossil fuel.
BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie said this week the company is “not going to move away from coal mining”.

BHP Billiton chief executive Andrew Mackenzie says the company will continue to mine coal, despite climate change concerns.

His position comes despite a warning last month by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that coal must be virtually phased out by 2050 if the world is to keep global warming below the 1.5 degree threshold, beyond which the effects of climate change would be catastrophic and, in many cases, irreversible.
Addressing shareholders on Thursday, Mr Mackenzie said BHP had a moral obligation to combat climate change, but the developing world needed coal to lift citizens out of poverty.
“For many countries in the world, coal is still their cheapest source of energy, their most reliable source of energy,” he said.
“To deny them that right away would run the risk of actually plunging them ... into poverty or preventing them from ever lifting themselves out of poverty or even getting onto the grid.”
Mr Mackenzie said BHP “will not be emitting any additional molecule of CO2 into the atmosphere from 2050 onwards”. This would occur by using low- or zero-emissions power in its operations, supporting reforestation and wilderness preservation and “just making everything much more efficient”.
In response to the comments, Ms Figueres, the former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said poorer nations did not need Australia’s coal.
“Developing nations will unlock the solutions to poverty with renewable energy. Not with toxic, expensive coal,” she said.

Former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres says the developing world does not need Australia's "toxic, expensive" coal. Credit: Reuters

Solar and wind power were already cheaper than fossil fuels in many markets and “renewable energy will out-compete fossil fuels everywhere by 2020”, she said, adding that investors were “withdrawing from coal on all fronts”.
The World Bank, among other financiers, has largely ruled out funding new coal plants. It says coal contributes to poverty through air pollution, which causes illness, and climate change, to which the poor are particularly vulnerable.
Ms Figueres, who led the Paris climate talks in 2015, said as well as the health impacts, global warming was hurting the environment and “contributing to the die-off of the beloved Great Barrier Reef”.
BHP mostly mines coking coal used to make steel and iron. It also mines thermal coal, which is burned for electricity. This includes the large Mount Arthur mine in NSW, and a major stake in Colombia’s Cerrejon mine where a massive expansion is proposed.
Mr Mackenzie said there was “no real alternative” to coking coal, which produces significant emissions when used to make steel. This meant those emissions must be cut through carbon capture and storage, in which BHP is investing, he said.

BHP boss Andrew Mackenzie says the company is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2050. Credit: Bloomberg

Veteran physicist and climate scientist Bill Hare, founder of international think tank Climate Analytics, said renewable hydrogen could replace coal in steel production.
Such use of hydrogen is at the experimental stage, however, the capture and storage of carbon is also unproven at large scale.
“By backing coal only weeks after the world scientific community has spoken on the urgent need to phase this out, [BHP] is turning its back on the future,” Dr Hare said, adding that claims coal was needed to overcome poverty was “a denial of science”.
Meantime, the ACT is nearing its goal of sourcing all electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
The Crookwell 2 wind farm, near Goulburn, has begun feeding electricity into the grid and is expected to produce enough electricity to power about 42,000 Canberra homes.
Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor, who has campaigned against wind farms, did not attend a launch event on Saturday despite the project being located in his electorate. A spokesman said Mr Taylor had a “prior engagement”.
ACT Climate Change Minister Shane Rattenbury said the wind farm was “a key milestone as we progress towards our ambitious clean-energy future” and would provide significant flow-on benefits to the region.

Links

• Climate Change And Renewables Driving New Mining Boom, Mining Chief Says
• Coal Is Killing The Planet. Trump Loves It.
• Coal's Days Are Numbered, Top Government Adviser Says
• The Morrison Government’s Biggest Economic Problem? Climate Change Denial
• Can We Quit Coal In Time? IPCC Warns World Has Just 12 Years To Avoid Climate Change Catastrophe
• Australia Doesn’t Care To Break Its Coal Habit In The Face Of Climate Change
• To Tackle Climate Change, A New U.N. Climate Report Says Put A High Price On Carbon
• Mining Sector, Morrison Government On The Defensive Over IPCC Report
• Major Climate Report Describes A Strong Risk Of Crisis As Early As 2040