The UN, coal, climate and our contentious energy future

Reports that UN Assistant Secretary-General Selwin Hart will demand Australia shut its coalmining industry before 2030 will certainly “inflame tensions” (“UN gives 10-year deadline to shut down coalmining”, 6/9). As an unelected appointment by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Hart has no mandate to be lecturing Australia, one of 13 nations that originally called for the formation of a United Nations body in 1941. It is important to revisit why the UN was ever established in the first place; for it was never to act as world government dictating what individual nations should do. The 1942 declaration of the United Nations was, among other things, to defend independence for member states and to be engaged “in the common struggle” against forces “seeking to subjugate the world”. Independence for member states never implied that the UN could dictate policy in a sovereign state.

The UN today, sadly, is run by the unelected – often politicians who have been retired or rejected by their home states who elevate their own into comfortable sinecures to pursue their political aims. UN energy should be consumed in places like Afghanistan and Myanmar, but it would rather lecture sovereign nations on how to live. It is time for Australia to revisit the ideals envisaged in 1941, taking a leadership role in bringing the UN back on course.

Geoff Ellis, Smithfield, Qld

Josh Frydenberg says economic resilience is key to meeting the challenges posed by China (“No retreat in face of China threat”, 6/9). At the same time, the UN is increasing pressure on Australia to shut down its coalmining industry. Coal’s exports have been pivotal in strengthening our economic resilience. In 2019-20 alone, coal’s export earnings added $33.8bn to the national economy. Having a fit-for-purpose energy system is also critically important. For decades, coal-fired power plants have been providing the reliable, stable and secure energy our industries and businesses need to remain viable. If we are to achieve enduring economic resilience, we should ignore the UN’s outbursts of climate alarmism and continue exporting coal, and build new coal plants to replace those marked for retirement.

Dale Ellis, Innisfail, Qld

Graham Lloyd’s report “UN gives 10-year deadline to shut down coalmining” (6/9) should be read in conjunction with the article “Pope issues green commandments” (6/9) and last month’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.

Now we have the UN, the IPCC and the Pope all advising the urgent phase-out of the coal industry and the retraining of its workers for other jobs. This does not mean, of course, immediate change: that would cause chaos, and would be all but impossible. Nor does it mean immediately ceasing to mine metallurgical coal, export it or use it for making steel. However, it does mean weaning ourselves off the thermal coal that powered the Industrial Revolution but is now redundant.

The renewable energy industry in Australia, and around the world, is growing rapidly, and rapidly opening up job opportunities. This – not coal – is the way of the future.

Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin, ACT

As a retired 40-year coalminer and adjunct professor in engineering, I can see where all the vested overseas interests of all types might want to close Australia’s highly profitable coalmines that have backed Australia’s economic development for nearly 100 years. Lowering greenhouse gas emissions is becoming a global imperative that just won’t go away. The opportunity we are missing is to begin the transition of our key mining and power-generation operations from coal to nuclear. Australia almost alone among modern developed countries has a ban on nuclear power generation. It is just absurd. We are world class at open cut and underground mining, and at mineral processing. It can be uranium just as easily as coal.

Ian Brake, Mackay, Qld

Ron Hobba thinks great leaders need “common sense, pragmatism and courage” (Letters, 6/9). So Gandhi is out. Too much the idealistic pacifist. Churchill had no common sense. Martin Luther King? Another idealist, no common sense and definitely not a pragmatist. Mandela? What pragmatist gets locked up for 27 years?

But maybe a climate scientist would do the trick in our current pickle.

Lesley Walker, Northcote, Vic