So, an Italian judge, a Beijing provincial official, a London banker and an Australian firefighter walk into a bar… Sounds like the start of a bad joke doesn’t it? It is, and all of these people get that the continued use of coal would be the worst joke of all.
Earlier this week an Italian judge ordered two coal fired units of a power station to be shut down for allegedly exceeding emissions limits. The company is charged with environmental crimes and manslaughter for the premature deaths of over 400 people. Is this judgement a taste of things to come? Research findings have suggested European Union wide impacts of coal combustion amount to more than 18,200 premature deaths; about 8,500 new cases of chronic bronchitis; and over 4 million lost working days each year. The economic costs of the health impacts from coal combustion in Europe are estimated at up to €42.8 billion per year.
The “airpocalypse” gripping many Chinese cities and regions are further evidence of the direct health impacts of coal combustion. It has been estimated that the environmental and social costs of coal added up to more than 7% of China’s GDP in 2007. There can be no doubt that because of these health impacts, societal costs and contribution to the climate crisis, have seen Chinese province after Chinese province announce a cap on coal in recent months.
Nor have these developments gone unnoticed in the financial sector. Bankers and rating agencies in the financial centres of London and Hong Kong are becoming increasingly aware of the “carbon bubble: and the likelihood of significant stranded assets. Their colleagues in New York, Frankfurt and other financial hubs are soon to follow, or so ECO logically assumes. It is estimated that between 60-80% of fossil fuel reserves of publicly listed companies will need to stay in the ground if the 2℃ goal is to be met; with even higher figures for 1.5℃. Nowhere is this more true than for the Australian coal industry which is heavily dependent on exports to China. The same China that is capping coal.
And what about the Australian firefighter? Well, it just so happens that the coal plant that’s been ordered to shut down in Italy is partially owned by the same company which owns the open-cut coal mine that’s been burning for weeks in Australia’s Latrobe Valley. The extreme heatwave the region was suffering made it far easier for a fire to take hold. Such dire heatwaves as well as droughts and fires are becoming all too common in Australia as the impacts of climate change intensify. Climate change caused in large part by – you guessed it, that bad joke of a power source, coal.
So whether they get together in a bar, a court, the stock market, a coal mine fire, or in a parliament – the judge, government official, banker and firefighter would all agree that coal must be on its way out. Now we just need UNFCCC negotiators to get the joke as well – they can help to achieve a just transition to a better future through raising ambition in the near-term and as part of their post-2020 commitment preparations, including support for those countries that would need it. Because clearly what a South African judge, French urbanite, Indian banker and Peruvian firefighter must have in common is a renewable energy future.
