The environmental impact of coal is well documented – carbon emissions, toxic fly ash, mercury, lead, arsenic, nitrous oxide and sulphur dioxide to name just a few issues; but as a nation, we are so reliant on the fossil fuel.
What would a coal-less Australia look like? Is it even possible economically in the short term?
Australia’s love affair with coal fired power generation has given us the dubious honour of giving us the highest carbon footprint per capita on earth. But there’s a bigger impact – we export 80% of what we pull out of the ground. According to a recent article in The Age by Michael Bachelard, Australian coal is responsible for 1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, about 8.3 per cent of the world’s total emissions from coal.
The coal industry continuously claims that a coal-less Australia would be an economic disaster. Greenpeace says the domestic coal industry could be shut down as soon 2020, without adverse economic consequences.
It seems that coal is about 2 to 3 per cent of the national economy, measured as gross domestic product, but much of the profits from our coal activities are diverted to overseas shareholders in the big mining companies.
10 industries, including coal, responsible for over a third of Australia’s emissions, accounted for only 4 per cent of national production and 3 per cent of employment.
Greenpeace’s solution would see coal become a minor contributor to energy supply by 2050, with sources such as natural gas, biomass, solar power and geothermal energy eclipsing it; but with also a special focus on energy efficiency.
Some sectors of the coal industry have already made tentative transitional steps to help secure alternative employment for their members, such as Latrobe Valley unions developing a project to kick-start a factory producing solar hot water systems by next year.
More on the coal dilemma – Old King Coal
