In Australia, coal is king. But this reign is controversial and threatened, as the country realizes the importance of reducing its carbon footprint to stem climate change. The island continent even wants to become “a renewable energy superpower”.
“In Australia, coal is a very important industry economically,” admits Frank Jotzo, director of the Center for Climate Economics and Policy at the Australian National University, in Canberra.
“This sector generates tax revenue for the government, but, perhaps more importantly, it provides well-paying jobs. And this is perhaps the most difficult obstacle to overcome in the transition: the regional economic slowdown that would occur if the coal mines were closed,” adds Mr. Jotzo.
As in Canada, where Alberta remains firmly attached to the oil industry, the economic prosperity of many regions of Australia remains closely linked to the fate of coal.
Internationally, Australia is the fifth largest coal producer (490 metric tonnes per year in 2020), far behind China, which ranks first (3790 mt/year), according to Agency data. International Energy Agency (IEA).
On the export side, the country, nicknamed “Down Under” because of its geographical position, is the second largest exporter of coal in the world (390 mt/year in 2020), just behind Indonesia, which occupies first place ( 405 mt/year).
And, far from having decreased radically in recent years to limit global warming, Australian coal exports remain very high.
According to Australian government estimates, Australia’s coal exports are expected to be more than 2.5 times higher (360 mt) in 2023 than they were thirty years earlier (130 mt), at the time of the Earth Summit in Rio, where world leaders adopted the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The potential of renewables
The vast majority of coal produced in Australia is intended for export, but this material still remains the predominant energy source that powers the country’s electricity network. Nearly 60% of Australia’s national electricity grid relies on coal, compared to 30% on renewables.
Things could change, however, as the Australian government aims to make the country “a renewable energy superpower”, banking on its vast solar and wind resources, as well as the abundance of transition-related minerals, such as lithium.
“It’s entirely realistic, but the task is considerable,” said Bruce Mountain, director of the Center for Energy Policy at the University of Victoria in Melbourne.
“The advantage of fossil fuels is that they are concentrated and can be stored — unlike wind and solar which require an expansion of the transmission network and storage technologies,” explains the professor.
But, without waiting for the electricity network to transform, Australians have already made efforts in recent years to green their electricity supply.
In residential areas, electrical panels abound on the roofs. Backing figures, according to the Roy Morgan research institute, nearly one in three homes is equipped with solar panels in Australia.
“We have a lot more electricity production from energy that comes from solar panels installed on roofs than we do from solar farms,” notes Mr. Mountain.
“It’s very popular and helps people save money on their energy bills. But this still creates an inequality between those who have a house and can afford solar panels and those who live in shared accommodation and cannot afford them,” adds the expert.
Changing of guard and vision on climate
The victory of the Labor Party, led by Anthony Albanese, in the 2022 federal election marked a turning point in the Australian political landscape — ending the decade of Liberal rule, the equivalent of the Conservatives in Canada.
“For many years, we had a federal government that took political advantage of the climate divide and regional fault lines,” says Frank Jotzo of the Australian National University.
“The Labor government has a proactive stance on climate change. And that changes a lot, particularly compared to the previous Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, whose government really had its foot on the brake when it came to climate action,” says Mr Jotzo.
In the last year, the Albanese government has implemented several policies to set the course for reducing the country’s carbon footprint. It set by law the objectives of reducing emissions by 43% by 2030 and of net zero emissions by 2050, in addition to tightening the mechanism which imposes emission limits on the approximately 200 most polluting installations in the country.
“This mechanism was in fact introduced by the Conservatives, but its parameters had been established so that it was completely ineffective — which the new government has corrected,” says Mr. Jotzo.
At the beginning of May, a new “national authority of net zero » was also put in place. It will be used, among other things, to provide training support to workers in emissions-intensive sectors.
But Australia’s climate ambitions are limited to its borders.
“Today, federal and state governments recognize the need for an energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, and they know that this will eventually have consequences for exports. They understand it, but it’s very difficult to broach the subject openly. So the situation is this: most Australian governments are committed to the national energy transition, but they do not openly acknowledge that exports will decline,” explains Professor Jotzo.
In short, Australia wants to run on renewable energies, but plans to continue to export coal to other countries.
An observation that Bruce Mountain also observes. “The argument is: If we don’t do it, someone else will. So far, our government is not seeking a global agreement to end coal exports. And he is not willing to act unilaterally,” he notes.
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat-International Journalism Fund.The duty.