UK says ‘end of coal in sight’

The Australian minerals sector has hit back at suggestions that the coal industry is facing imminent death.

THE Australian resources sector has rejected suggestions the death of coal was imminent, after the British government declared “the end was in sight” for the fossil fuel.

Some 190 countries and organisations are now committed to phasing coal out, the British government said, including 18 countries who have made pledges to do so while at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow.

The new signatories to the UK’s Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement include Vietnam – previously identified as a strong alternative market for Australia in the wake of the Chinese coal ban – as well as Poland and Chile.

The UK’s Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said nations from all over the world were now declaring that “coal has no part to play in our future power generation”.

“Spearheaded by the UK’s COP26 Presidency, today’s ambitious commitments made by our international partners demonstrate that the end of coal is in sight,” Mr Kwarteng said.

“The world is moving in the right direction, standing ready to seal coal’s fate and embrace the environmental and economic benefits of building a future that is powered by clean energy.”

But the CEO of the Minerals Council of Australia, Tania Constable, said demands for Australian coal were still strong.

‘There is strong export demand for high quality Australian thermal and metallurgical coal based on traditional markets and the many new power plants and steel mills built this century in the Asian region,” she said.

“To achieve net zero emissions there must be a continued focus on developing and deploying all technologies including carbon capture and storage in countries using thermal coal and gas for power generation, as well as for the production of hydrogen from coal and gas sources,” Ms Constable said.

Minerals Council Chief Tania Constable. Picture: Gary Ramag

Britain's Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng. Picture: Daniel Leal-Olivas / AFP

In September, the federal government forecast Australia’s metallurgical coal export values would shake off a recent decline and reach $30 billion by 2022–23. The value of thermal coal exports was projected to decline slightly, going from an expected $24 billion this financial year to $19 billion in 2022–23.

Federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt said “demand for Australian coal, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, will increase over the next decade and beyond”.

The sector supported about 300,000 jobs and generated around $50 billion each year, “and that won’t be changing any time soon,” Mr Pitt said.

An International Energy Agency report from earlier this year projected coal demand in the Asia/Pacific region would increase own the next decade, with India leading the growth surge, Mr Pitt said.

Resources Minister Keith Pitt said coal would be supporting Australian prosperity “For decades to come”. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Carbon capture and storage technologies would also support the continued use of coal for electricity generation, the Minister said.

Professor Will Steffen from the Climate Council said the decision to move away from coal was increasingly being made by many countries using both an “economic as well as climate lens” because of the rapidly decreasing price of renewables.

Ms Constable said the MCA “supports the Paris Agreement and is working towards real climate change action and an ambition of achieving net zero emissions by 2050”.

Originally published as UK says ‘end of coal in sight’