{"id":292823,"date":"2023-12-28T09:16:44","date_gmt":"2023-12-28T08:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=292823"},"modified":"2023-12-28T09:16:46","modified_gmt":"2023-12-28T08:16:46","slug":"aussie-coal-state-premier-promotes-the-end-of-coal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=292823","title":{"rendered":"Aussie Coal State Premier Promotes the End of Coal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From The Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by Eric Worrall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Queensland\u2019s long reigning premier Annastacia Palaszczuk may have cut and run in the face of negative polls<\/a> and a looming election<\/a>, but her successor\u2019s plan to accelerate coal job losses will help?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u2018My job to convince them\u2019: Steven Miles knows climate change is coming for Queensland<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exclusive<\/strong>: New premier hopes to navigate path to transition in disaster-prone state that makes billions from coal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Messenger<\/a> Sun 24 Dec 2023 01.00 AEDT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even for an incoming state premier, Steven Miles<\/a> has had a busy first week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miles had already set out to make climate change one of the themes of his first week in office, even before ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper flooded the state\u2019s north. Two Fridays running, the student of Al Gore<\/a> has rolled out major green announcements: doubling the state\u2019s emissions reduction target to 75%<\/a> by 2035 in his first announcement as premier and banning new gas developments from the state\u2019s far western river systems<\/a>, an election promise dating to 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miles is eager to build a consensus around the economics of the transition: a link between city and bush, right and left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miles hopes he has found the answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my job to convince [people] that addressing climate change isn\u2019t a threat to jobs, it\u2019s actually a way to protect jobs,\u201d Miles says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you look at the high-emitting industries in places like Gladstone and Townsville, they\u2019re going to lose their global customers if they continue to be reliant on such high levels of fossil fuel energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo the best way we can protect those jobs is by providing them with renewable energy so that they can sell their products into markets that increasingly want green, aluminium, green steel, green products. And similarly, if we get it right, we can also attract new industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the past, they we\u2019re attracted to our cheap, plentiful fossil fuel-based energy. In the future we will have cheap, plentiful, firmed renewable energy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026Read more: https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2023\/dec\/24\/my-job-to-convince-them-steven-miles-knows-climate-change-is-coming-for-queensland<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The problem with this plan is cheap, plentiful, firmed renewable energy does not exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Batteries are impossibly expensive. Available dam sites are way too distant and wouldn\u2019t provide enough capacity. And if the plan is to firm using natural gas or coal, there is no need to build the renewables \u2013 it would always be cheaper just to build the natural gas or coal, and forget the renewables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Net Zero cannot and will not happen, with current technology choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly Queensland\u2019s mainstream political opponents, the Liberal National Party, are also committed to Net Zero<\/a>, just on a slightly slower timeframe \u2013 so they are almost as bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is my home state of Queensland cursed with such a parade of economic fools?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If international demand for coal drops, the industry will scale back and realign on its own. There is no need to talk coal down and try to kill it off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The one hope of political sanity in Queensland, Queensland is also home to One Nation<\/a> and Katter\u2019s Australian Party<\/a>. Katter is aligned with remote rural regions, and supports ethanol mandates, but they also oppose emissions reductions. One Nation has a sound climate policy. Both have more palatable energy ideas than any of the current mainstream parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the international stage, there is no evidence of a long term drop in coal demand, quite the opposite. The IEA keeps predicting a drop in demand on the basis of the expected Net Zero transition, but in 2022 and 2023 coal use reached all time highs, and 2024 demand is also expected to be high<\/a>. None of the renewable energy systems being created by green obsessed governments are delivering. The only threat to long term coal demand is nuclear energy, which enjoyed a boost in profile and popularity at the recent COP28.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personally I expect a significant short to medium term drop in demand, but not because of Net Zero. The economically incompetent Xi Jinping Chinese Communist regime is doing every wrong move you can imagine in the face of their realestate sector collapse, their government is pouring money into well connected but already failed industries, and doubling down on useless infrastructure projects \u2013 all the failed policies which made the\u00a02008 GFC<\/a>\u00a0so painful in the west, and more. But nobody can predict when that circus act will come unstuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why is the state of Queensland cursed with such a parade of economic fools?\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":292825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Why is the state of Queensland cursed with such a parade of economic 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