Al Gore warns India won’t want to buy coal from Carmichael mine

Former US vice president Al Gore says Queensland could be left with a multibillion-dollar “hole in the ground” as the Adani mine edges closer to approval.

GREENS crusader Al Gore has bid anyone wanting to sell coal to India “good luck”, in an indirect swipe at the State and Federal Government over the controversial Adani mine.

The former US vice president, who has been a critic of the Carmichael coal mine, lead the first day of The Climate Reality Project’s Leadership Corps training in Brisbane yesterday.

During a two-hour power point presentation, Mr Gore spoke about India’s “new electricity generated capacity”, stating 65 per cent of which came from solar and wind in 2018.

He also said 225GW of solar was under construction in India.

“They’re not gonna continue with coal,” he said.

“You wanna sell coal to India, good luck.”

Al Gore speaking at the Climate Reality Leadership Corps training at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre in South Brisbane. Pic Mark Cranitch.

The audience clapped after this comment.

About 800 people are taking part in the three-day training, with participants travelling from 36 countries.

The event has been plagued by controversy after The Courier-Mail revealed taxpayers’ dollars were being used to subsidise the training.

During his presentation, Mr Gore said India had “turned a corner” and claimed the country’s coal had “much more inherent energy content than the kind of coal in the Galilee”.

He went onto speak about a financial expert from New Delhi who claimed anyone wanting to invest in coal in India would “have to be pretty courageous”.

“What do they know that some people in other countries don’t seem to know?” he said.

Mr Gore then joked he was “trying to tread carefully”, which was met with more clapping from the crowd.

The Climate Reality Leadership Corps training at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre in South Brisbane. Pic Mark Cranitch.

The former US Vice President also spoke about proposed coal developments in the US that ended up being cancelled.

“In the US we’ve wasted a lot of money because big energy developers said ‘Oh this is going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread’ …

“And then they leave a big hole in the ground.

“There are several states in the US that have eight, nine, 10 billion dollar holes in the ground that they’re still paying for and will pay for most of the rest of their lives because the developers talked them into what sounded like a great project.

“I’ve been hearing some talk around here that makes me think it’s similar.”

The audience laughed at this comment.

“Financial institutions, a lot of them have announced they’re not going finance this anymore,” Mr Gore said.

Al Gore speaking at the Climate Reality Leadership Corps training at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre in South Brisbane. Pic Mark Cranitch.

“That’s one of the reasons why not a single global financial institution after doing the financial analysis would put any money up for the Adani mine.

“Not a single one of them.

“That’s why it looks like none of the insurance companies will do it either.

“But again, it’s not for me to get into this.

“In the US, we’ve been down this road and may I just say this is nuts.”