{"id":3240,"date":"2020-01-17T13:19:11","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T05:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/?p=3240"},"modified":"2023-10-24T22:49:37","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T14:49:37","slug":"most-australians-would-hardly-notice-if-we-went-coal-free-say-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/most-australians-would-hardly-notice-if-we-went-coal-free-say-experts\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Australians \u2018would hardly notice\u2019 if we went coal free, say experts – Georgia Wilkins"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nScott Morrison says coal is vital to the economy, but experts say we could phase out fossil fuel and life would go on as usual<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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Georgia Wilkins<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Jan 16, 2020<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison launched a <\/span>strident defence of coal<\/a><\/span> on Wednesday, saying the industry was worth $70 billion a year to the economy and vital to many communities around the country.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Asked about the world\u2019s biggest investment fund BlackRock<\/span> dumping half a billion dollars in coal shares<\/span><\/a>,<\/span> Morrison said transitioning away from coal could \u201c[pull] the rug from regional communities\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

But experts say most Australians would \u201chardly notice\u201d if we went coal-free, and that the transition was already well underway. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLife would go on as usual,\u201d said Paul Burke, an economist working on energy, the environment and transport at the Australian National University\u2019s Crawford School of Public Policy. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just talking about one input into the economy, and fossil fuels are substitutional for renewables, especially given they are now much cheaper and reliable than before.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Burke said despite the polarisation of the climate change debate in Australia, the shift away from fossil fuels was not in fact a radical one, and \u201ccould happen in a way that most of us would hardly notice\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

So what would the next steps be in terms of weaning ourselves off the black stuff? <\/span><\/p>\n

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More job transition schemes<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

With a dozen coal-fired power plants already closed in Australia since 2013, according to some figures<\/a> many local communities are already grappling with the issue of unemployment. <\/span><\/p>\n

But Burke says the number of people affected is small in economic terms, and that transitional programs are already operating in some states to great success.<\/span><\/p>\n

The La Trobe Worker Transfer Scheme in Victoria, which is redeploying retrenched Hazelwood power station workers to other sites, has become a<\/span> world-leader<\/a><\/span><\/span> in regional labour adjustment. But more programs will be needed for NSW and Queensland. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cProviding adequate retraining and a safety net for people in those areas is a very important part of planning for this transition.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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Electricity<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

According to experts, coal is already making a much lower contribution to our electricity mix \u2014 down to 60% to from 80% 20 years ago<\/a>. And Australia\u2019s transport system is increasingly shifting to electricity and batteries. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dani Alexander, a research principal at the University of Technology Sydney\u2019s Institute for Sustainable Futures, said a grid powered completely by renewables was closer to reality than most people think.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll the technologies already exist. We don\u2019t need any technological breakthroughs to make it economically viable. If you built a new power station now, it would be renewable. All we\u2019re missing is a comprehensive energy policy.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Exports<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

After iron ore, coal is Australia\u2019s biggest export and has propped up the economy for decades. <\/span><\/p>\n

But Burke says Australia is already primed to export renewable energy to Asian markets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iron ore billionaire Andrew \u201cTwiggy\u201d Forrest and tech entrepreneur Mike Cannon-Brookes have invested millions in a $20 billion-plus Sun Cable project<\/a> set to drive Asia\u2019s transition to cleaner energy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis sector could be really ramped up,\u201d Burke said. \u201cThere are lots of land and wind resources in the north of Australia, and there is the potential we could be exporting more in terms of energy content and making more revenue from these zero carbon opportunities.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The take-away?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

While the transition away from coal might require political leadership and policy change, it\u2019s happening already.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe lights will still go on and we will continue to live our lives, and most of us will not even notice,\u201d Burke said.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Related<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

How many coal jobs? > Check the facts<\/span> <\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Peter Reith writing in the Australian Financial Review today claimed that:<\/span><\/span>The coal industry alone provides about 200,000 jobs and brings in billions of dollars to our economy to underscore living standards.<\/em><\/span>According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics <\/span>coal mining employs<\/a><\/span> 37,800 people. Mr Reith\u2019s claim is more than five times this number.<\/span><\/span>This misperception is more accurate than general impressions of mining industry employment.<\/span>Survey results show<\/span><\/a> that Australians think mining employs nine times as many people as it actually does.<\/span><\/span> Check the facts – Australia Institute” href=”https:\/\/australiainstitute.org.au\/post\/how-many-coal-jobs-check-the-facts\/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>How many coal jobs? > Check the facts<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong> – Australia Institute<\/span><\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Scott Morrison says coal is vital to the economy, but experts say we could phase out fossil fuel and life would go on as usual Georgia Wilkins Jan 16, 2020 Prime Minister Scott Morrison launched a strident defence of coal on Wednesday, saying the industry was worth $70 billion a year to the economy and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[569,6,3,51],"tags":[310,206,312,311],"class_list":["post-3240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-environment","category-political-issues","category-technology","tag-coal","tag-environment","tag-solar-power","tag-transition"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}