In light of the urgency contained in this week’s IPCC Synthesis Report, the coal industry must end its shameful and dishonest PR strategy. This strategy has been adopted by the global industry and its political supporters. It all began with Peabody Coal. The report found:
“While Peabody talks about energy poverty, other organisations act. The United Nations, World Bank, governments and non-government organisations are addressing energy poverty through programs relating to electrification, lighting and improving access to cooking facilities … None of the main energy poverty initiatives promotes the use of coal. Perhaps because of this, the coal industry does not support any of the main energy poverty initiatives.”
“It is one thing to refuse to do anything to relieve global poverty, but to lie about the appalling impacts of the product you make is a whole other dimension of unacceptability,” said Greenpeace Energy & Climate campaigner, Nic Clyde.
The Australia Institute report finds that:
- coal is bad for humanity, with coal use “often associated with lower life expectancy due to health impacts of indoor and outdoor air pollution and the global health impacts of climate change”.
- the coal industry has failed on a grand scale, to capture and store their pollution, with “less than one tenth of one per cent (0.07 per cent) of the world’s total 33,376 million tonnes of emissions” captured and stored each year
- that with alternatives becoming cheaper, developing countries are “likely to reduce coal use much earlier in their development”.
“Coal is not helping the poor to move out of poverty, its killing people. A report produced by Greenpeace India and two other NGO’s last year entitled Coal Kills, estimated that in 2011-2012, emissions from Indian coal plants resulted in 80,000 to 115,000 premature deaths,” said Clyde.
At approximately 210 GW, India has the fifth largest electricity generation sector in the world, of which 66% comes from coal. Despite this, a third of the population that lives in rural India does not have access to electricity.
Five months ago, Greenpeace India worked with the rural community in Dharnai, India, and built a 100 kilowatt (kW) solar-powered micro-grid, currently providing electricity to more than 2,400 people living in Dharnai village in Bihar’s Jehanabad district.
“While India was growing in leaps and bounds, we were stuck here for the last 30 years, trying everything in the book to get electricity,” said Kamal Kishore, a resident of Dharnai. “We were forced to struggle with kerosene lamps and expensive diesel generators. But now I can proudly say that Dharnai is a leader in innovation. We have established our identity as an energy self-sufficient village and can compete with the country in its race to growth.”
“The IPCC report launched last Sunday makes it clear the world must move to a fossil fuel free future in order to have one,” said Clyde. “The coal industry can either spend its money diversifying into the clean energy industry or go the way of other industries who have been outflanked by progress. Whatever it decides, lying about the role of coal in global poverty alleviation is no longer an option,” concluded Clyde.
For more information contact
Greenpeace Climate & energy campaigner Nic Clyde 0438 282 409
Greenpeace Communications Officer, Julie Macken 0400 925 217
Note to Editors:
In a recently released Greenpeace report on Whitehaven’s social license called Whitehaven Coal: No Future, it found the Australian mining industry not only accepts the need for such a licence, it also offers guidance on how to achieve that outcome saying:
“To maintain an SLO (social licence to operate) mining companies must keep their promises and commitments, respond to the community’s concerns and requests, ensure that information is not only delivered but also understood by all stakeholders, be accountable to the communities at all stages of the project cycle, and not engage in dishonest or irresponsible behaviour.”