Why Australia wants Paris to fail - a coal exporting country's perspective on plans to cut global emissions, is the title of next week's I-SEE seminar in Bath by Dr Richard Denniss, the chief economist of the Australia Institute. This is his abstract:
As world leaders prepare to make new commitments to tackle climate change in Paris, Australia is preparing to build some of the world's largest export coal mines. The Adani/Carmichael mine which was recently granted approval by the new Turnbull Government will produce more than 2 billion tonnes of coal, enough to make a pile of coal 10 metres wide, 1 metre deep and 200,000 kilometres long. Long enough to loop the world 5 times. In all there are 50 proposals for new coal projects in Australia.
This talk will outline the enormous planned expansion of coal production in Australia and Indonesia and attempt to explain why, despite the falling coal price, such an expansion is likely to go ahead. The word subsidies will be used more than once. The talk will also explain the economic and political benefits of a moratorium on new coal mines such as that called for by the President of the small island state of Kiribati.
Richard Denniss is the Australia Institute's former Executive Director. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Crawford School of Economics at The Australian National University, and a columnist for the Australian Financial Review.
I shall be reporting back.
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