Coal workers must be respected and empowered to help determine their future and assisted to make the inevitable transition to clean energy and exports.
The Australian Financial Review reports that ALP’s Chris Bowen will make a speech today about coal communities deserving honesty about the future. This is important.
The world is moving away from fossil fuels because we made a global agreement to limit global warming. Burning coal and gas is the number one planet warmer.
As Chris Bowen will say today “almost 80 per cent of Australia’s thermal coal exports go to Japan, China and South Korea and all three have committed to net zero emissions by mid-century. We can allow the decline of our jobs and our industries to be dictated by boardrooms in Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul or we can pull our heads out of the sand, face up to global realities, and create new jobs – all while making energy cheaper and more reliable.”
There is so much opportunity for Australia if we act on climate change and so much to lose if we don’t.
The political climate wars that have plagued Australia must end if we are to take our country in the right direction towards becoming a clean energy superpower.
Coal workers must be respected and empowered to help determine their future and assisted to make the inevitable transition to clean energy and exports.
That starts with honest conversations and is backed with fair dinkum resources and investment in the industries and jobs for coal workers and their kids.
That can include renewable powered steel, aluminium and hydrogen, manufactured locally in communities like Gladstone and the Hunter Valley.
Today Senator Matt Canavan said manufacturing is more important than climate change. I reckon manufacturing is a solution to climate change. We just have to be forward thinking about what we make.
The Australian Conservation Foundation has been quietly supporting conversations in coal communities in central Queensland about what local people want for their future. (We're doing it quietly because it’s not for an environment group to determine the future of coal communities; it should be community led.)
I’d love to see governments, whatever their political stripes, ramp up these conversations and turn them into secure jobs and industries for these communities that have powered our country for decades.
This piece was originally published on LinkedIn.
