John Howard criticises UN calls for Australia to shut down coal industry

The former PM has criticised a call to abandon coal production, arguing that it is one of Australia’s most valuable exports.

John Howard has slammed a United Nations call for Australia to phase out coal production, saying that he was “cynical” about lectures from international bodies about one of our most valuable export industries.

On Monday, UN climate official Selwin Hart told an audience at an ANU leadership forum that Australia that industrialised nations needed to stop using coal by 2030, with the rest of the world to stop by 2040 to avert “a global climate catastrophe.”

However Mr Howard, speaking on the approaching 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, said that “it never ceases to amaze me that people want to destroy one of the most valuable export industries that this country has, which also has the benefits of helping to lift the living standards of still quite underdeveloped countries compared to Australia.”

Former prime minister John Howard says countries like China and India still need Australia’s coal . Picture: Toby Zerna

Speaking about the possibilities of renewables to replace coal, Mr Howard said: “Renewables have become a lot more attractive because of the subsidies that have been provided by requiring people to use them.”

Countries like China and India, Mr Howard said, still needed Australia’s coal because “our coking coal is extremely good for steel production, and our thermal coal for general energy production … (and) if they can’t get it from us they will get it from somewhere else.”

“It’s always seemed to me that the ground floor rules of the international climate debate were made by the Europeans who started off a base of gains made by the collapse of the old East European economy and the deindustrialisation of East Germany.”

“I’m a little cynical about these international lectures to Autralia about an industry that’s a very valuable exporter.”

“We have coal (that other countries) want … it helps in their continued industrialisation.”

A Chinese man wears a protective mask as smog covers central Beijing. Picture: Getty

The Morrison government also rubbished Mr Hart’s call to shut down coal.

“The future of this crucial industry will be decided by the Australian Government, not a foreign body that wants to shut it down costing thousands of jobs and billions of export dollars for our economy,” federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt said Monday.

In recent months the issue of China’s coal use has come into sharper focus, with the world’s largest CO2 emitter defending its continued development of coal fired power plants.

Last April, China’s director-general of the climate change department of the PRC’s environment ministry said coal plants “mainly help guarantee people’s livelihoods, and guarantee the flexibility and security of our energy grid,” he said, adding that such plants may not run at “full capacity”.

A recent study by the Institute of Public Affairs found that China emits more carbon in 16 days than Australia emits in an entire year.