China Battles the World’s Biggest Coal Exporter, and Coal Is Losing
Western industrial economies aren't exactly standing in line for Australia's coal
China is forcing Australia to confront what many countries are concluding: The coal era is coming to an end.
China has now officially blocked coal imports from Australia after months of vague restrictions that dramatically slowed trade and stranded huge ships at sea.
For Australia, the world’s largest coal exporter, the decision is a gut punch that eliminates its second-biggest market at a time when many countries are already rethinking their dependence on a filthy fossil fuel that accelerates the devastation of climate change.
While Beijing’s motives are difficult to divine, there are hints of mercantilist protection for local producers and the desire to punish Australia for perceived sins that include demanding an inquiry into the source of the coronavirus. China’s commitment to cut emissions may also allow it to be marginally more selective with its vast purchases.
Whatever the reasoning, the impact is shaping up to be profound for a country that has tied its fate to coal for more than 200 years. Mining policy can still decide elections in Australia and the current conservative government is determined to do the bare minimum on climate change, which has made China’s coal cutback a symbolic, cultural and economic shock.
“A transition has been forced upon us,” said Richie Merzian, the climate and energy program director at the Australia Institute, an independent think tank. “It’s hard to see how things will really pick up from here.”
The realization, if it holds, may take time to sink in.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has ridden Australia’s traditional reliance on fossil fuels into power. He famously held up a hunk of coal in Parliament in 2017, declaring “don’t be scared,” and first became prime minister in an intraparty coup after his predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull, tried to pursue a more aggressive approach to combating climate change.
“Coal-Mo,”as some of his critics call him, dismissed concerns on Wednesday about China’s ban, arguing that there are many other countries still lining up for the product.
“I should stress one point, that our biggest coal-exporting country, the country that takes our exports largest on coal are actually Japan and India,” he said. “So China is not our major importer when it comes to thermal or metallurgical coal.”
While Japan accounted for 27 percent of Australia’s roughly $50 billion in coal exports last year, China was not far behind at 21 percent. India was third at 16 percent.
Mr. Morrison’s faith in coal is hardly unique. The combustible rock is a most Australian product. It was first discovered on the continent in 1797, less than a decade after the first British settlers arrived. Since then, entire communities have been built around not just mines but also sprawling ports where cargo ships lug mountains of coal all over the world.
It is not a huge job producer. Only about 50,000 people worked in coal mining last year in Australia. (Plumbers clocked in at around 80,000.)
But it is a huge moneymaker. Coal production in Australia has more than doubled over the past three decades, with the share that is exported jumping to 75 percent in fiscal 2017, up from 55 percent in 1990.
Coal royalties for one state alone, Queensland, approached $4 billion last year.
And in many areas, from the Hunter Valley a few hours outside Sydney, to Mackay near the Great Barrier Reef, coal has long been a constant. It’s what you see on trains and at sea. It’s what put Australia on the global map. For many, it’s what inspires nationalist pride.
China’s ban, which started gradually reducing imports in August, is deflating that image.
Glencore, one of the largest coal mining companies in Australia, temporarily closed several of its mines in September and October.
In Mackay, where coal volumes from the ports have been dropping, the fear of lost jobs and a lost way of life has been increasing.
The stocks of Australian coal companies collapsed this week after the China news hit the markets.
And there is little sign of improvement. One pricing agency, S&P Platts, has estimated that in the first quarter of next year alone Australia will lose out on sales of up to 32 million metric tons of thermal coal — the coal for power plants — that would have gone to China.
China, in many ways, is simply the face of a more significant global disruption.
Japan announced earlier this year that it would retire about 100 of its most inefficient coal plants and invest in renewable energy. The country’s new prime minister announced in October that it would be carbon neutral by 2050.
South Korea and Taiwan, two other buyers in Australia’s top five, have also announced sharper targets for emission reduction, which would most likely mean less coal.
“It’s not market forces, it’s politics all the way down,” said Robyn Eckersley, a political scientist at the University of Melbourne who specializes in climate change. “The politics leads to a drying up of markets.”
Source: The New York Times
Australia is a US whore
racist anglos now defeating themselves crying and complaining
Australians can take comfort that their government will continue their main exports to China of bullshit, pomposity, insults and lies.
Why would China need to import what they have surpluses of?
Japan screwed itself with its incompetence at its nuclear plant in Fukushima (not protecting backup generators for an entirely predictable flood). If you don’t want coal there is one replacement, nuclear. That is the path Japan was on, but it’s dead now..
General Electric built the Fukushima plant.
If the coal era is coming to an end, what is replacing it, with the electric car era coming on?
“Anti-Empire” again sources NYT–couldn’t get more ironic
What would the Udo Bauer network source from?
At least this site gets a taste of real news from time to time rather than very bad satire. The problem with that though is that many in this community don’t know the difference between real news and satire, which is why so many members here believe in alternative facts…
You are saying that alternative facts are satire?
What do you think the word “satire” means???
“The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.”
Compare that to “alternative facts“:
If you believe satire, then you believe alternative facts, aka lies (fiction). Satire is written to insult the people who believe it…
You write in ways that convey totally different thoughts than you want to.
You wrote that the “that many in this community don’t know the difference between real news and satire, which is why so many members here believe in alternative facts…” If alternative facts are different from real news, then those who believe real news think alternative facts are satirical, and vice versa.
If you believe satire, you believe alternative facts, aka lies. The Babylon Bee writes nothing but satire. It’s deliberately insulting people like you, and sadly, you’re completely unaware of what they’re doing and why…
If you regard all alternative facts as lies, you have to believe all propaganda.
Alternate facts by definition are lies. The word “alternate” should have tipped you off. Facts are Facts. Alternative Facts are Lies. If you believe Alternative Facts, you believe Propaganda. It’s really not that hard to understand…
I don’t consider satire that is not aimed at me insulting, and few writers aim anything at specific people. Ad hominem is far more common than satire, but it is meant to destroy arguments by defaming those one disagrees with, usually because their arguments are unassailable.
Satire was written to deceive people like YOU. It’s aimed directly at YOU. They’re laughing at YOU. They’re making fun of YOU. The Onion is actually pretty good at it. The Babylon Bee publishes really crappy satire…
Now give me something else to laugh at. Tell me that you’ve donated to Trump’s Stop the Steal campaign…
The Onion commingles real reportage with satire.
Your definition of satire is more likely to deceive anyone, but your propaganda is transparent to me.
Good satire mixes facts with fiction to make the stories more believable. The Onion is really good at it. The Babylon Bee is not…
Hostages Trapped Inside Walmart Insisting They Never Shop At Walmart
Propaganda mixes lies in to a majority of truth, to deceive those who believe the truths into believing the lies. Satire just makes the same thing funny.
Right, you might be starting to understand. There’s hope for you yet. Both propaganda and satire mix fiction with fact to help fool their intended audiences. Both tools are intentionally used to deceive. Once you realize that you’re reading satire, you should be able to understand that the authors know what they’re writing is fiction but do so hoping to see how much BS their audience will believe. I imagine that they’re surprised at how low they can go…
The political satires that place some of us into trances are fiction?
Do you actually go into a trance when you read and listen to satire? That would probably be an interesting detail that you should tell your psychiatrist the next time you visit…
I’ve never donated anything to anything Trump has ever been involved in.
A monthly income of $1014 doesn’t lend itself to donations.
Good. Don’t ever be conned into donating to scams like Republicans love to run to fleece their own supporters. I’m sorry that your income is so low. It would be wise if you are equally careful if you earn a higher income. Hopefully your family and friends are helping you to survive your poverty income…
I’m the only survivor in my father’s family.
The best friends I ever had are all dead, but for one.
I have spent the last 30 years reducing my cost of living and my lifestyle is luxurious from my point of view.
Life is easier once one discovers that everything in life is a scam.
I bet you’re fun at parties…
So wearing coats in cold weather is a scam???
Anti-Jacketers Rally Outside Burlington Coat Factory To Protest Liberal Cold Weather Conspiracy
Staying in cold weather is senseless.
Parties are pretty boring.
Most of the jobs I had during the first half of my life were outdoor jobs. Do you think it’s possible to avoid going outside when it’s cold???
You do understand that the protest in The Onion video above is satire (fiction), don’t you? For most people, it would be obvious…
I’m currently retired from an outside job that I might go back to in the spring.
The only time I ever had to deal with the cold or the heat was when I wasn’t in the cab.
I seldom watch embedded videos because it is usually a waste of time and attention.
Good luck. I met a guy who walks to a local 7-11 just about every night while I’m walking the dogs at the beach. My dogs absolutely adore him. He’s a nice guy. Apparently he’s been homeless for his entire life, but he likes it. He’s currently living with his elderly grandmother because she can no longer care for herself. She’s 92. Even though there’s plenty of room in the condo, he sleeps outside on the balcony so that he doesn’t get used to A/C and heat. When his grandmother dies, he’ll go back to living under the stars on the streets so he doesn’t want to get spoiled by the A/C/Heat. He’s found a way to live in poverty and enjoy it. It’s not for everybody though…
It is easier to live in poverty when it is planned for.
I’ve been planning for over 30 years.
There’s a saying that I never agreed with. It goes something like this: “It is better to have had then lost than to never have had it.” If you had once been wealthy, it would be really challenging mentally living in deep poverty. Those who have never been wealthy don’t know how much they’re missing out on, so they aren’t psychologically damaged by the situation. Most don’t realize how much better and easier life could be if they were wealthy. Poverty is normal for them…
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After Fukushima, building nuclear plants are no longer an option for Japan.
And they are replacing them with coal-burning plants.
Australia is a hypocritical whore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92t8np88fEI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa102Gb-AI8
What else would you expect of a country that started as a penal colony?