THE coal industry has reacted cautiously to this week's United Nations report on climate change, which has led to a barrage of criticism of fossil fuel use.
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Amid an apocalyptic backdrop of northern hemisphere wildfires, the UN's Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, described the situation as "a code red for humanity".
"This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet," Mr Gutteres said in a widely circulated statement.
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"Countries should also end all new fossil fuel exploration and production, and shift fossil fuel subsidies into renewable energy."
But if comments by the federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt are anything to go by, the Morrison government will stick to its trajectory regardless of the landmark sixth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"The IPCC report will not change our Government's support for the coal sector, and the tens of thousands of people it employs throughout the Hunter region," Mr Pitt told the Newcastle Herald yesterday.
"The most recent forecasts indicate global demand for coal will increase over the next decade, particularly for premium quality coal from the Hunter," Mr Pitt said.
"Coal will continue to be a vitally important contributor to the Australian economy, and those of our trading partners, with a number of new and expanded mines in the pipeline as resources companies continue to invest billions of dollars in the sector."
Mr Pitt maintained the government's line that "technology not taxes" would be key to emissions reduction.
In the UK, Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister Boris Johnson was on the warpath, saying: "We know what must be done to limit global warming - consign coal to history and shift to clean energy sources, protect nature and provide climate finance for countries on the frontline."
The UK shut its last coalmine in 2015 but imported coal still provides about 3 per cent of its power, the same amount generated by solar.
Most UK electricity, about 40 per cent, comes from gas. Renewables have about the same share, mostly from wind, but with 10 per cent in biofuels, mainly burning wood pellets.
The rest, usually more than 10 per cent, comes from nuclear.
Tania Constable, head of the mining industry's peak body, the Minerals Council of Australia, said the UN report confirmed that climate change was real and that it required a global response.
Ms Constable said "all technologies", including "carbon capture, use and storage" (CCUS) were "essential as a starting point to combat climate change and to reach net zero emissions, which the council was committed to.
"Australian mining is already taking practical action to reduce emissions on mine sites as well as exploring, developing and safely delivering the raw materials required for global decarbonisation," Ms Constable said.
The Hunter's biggest mine owner, Glencore, was yet to respond to the report yesterday, but last Thursday its new chief executive, Gary Nagle, told a second quarter results briefing the company had a new short-term target to reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 15 per cent by 2026.
"We've increased our target for our medium-term target of 2035 from 40 per cent to a 50 per cent reduction, and that is in accordance with the Paris Accord, the 1.5-degree scenario," Mr Nagle said.
"Our coal business will continue to develop projects and run our operations responsibly to meet Glencore's climate change commitments," Mr Nagle said.
"Our coal portfolio is focused on responsible depletion not divestment.
"This allows us to meet the energy needs of today while investing in our metals commodities that will enable the future transition to zero emission industrial, energy and transport systems."
Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon, on the outer in Labor circles for criticising the party's climate policies, revived lines that were regularly used by the Coalition, saying Australia needed to talk up the reductions it had already made, and that it only accounted for 1.3 per cent of global emissions anyway.
This figure does not include the emissions of exported coal, which, if included, would take Australia's estimated contribution to as high as 5 per cent.
"The push by the excessive progressives to sacrifice Australian jobs while ignoring the reality of the impacts of the big emitters like China and India would achieve nothing but economic harm for Australia," Mr Fitzgibbon said.
Labor has been criticised by environmentalists for not pushing the Morrison government hard enough, but Paterson MP Meryl Swanson said Labor would not "follow the Greens" and would follow its own "sensible pathway" of protecting existing jobs and encouraging future technologies.
At the same time, Ms Swanson said Australians were sick of the climate wars and wanted "bipartisanship" on climate policy.
The NSW Minerals Council said it supported "a measured transition to a low-emissions global economy", stressed that "reliable and affordable energy" was needed and said that "all sectors" had a role to play in reducing emissions.
"We acknowledge that sustained global action is required to reduce the risks of human-induced climate change," a minerals council spokesperson said.
The energy transition included participating in climate agreements to "hold an increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels".
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