Another Labor Pollie Calls BS on “Net Zero”

First, it was former union chief and MP Jennie George warning the Labor party to wake up to itself over its “zero emissions” delusions. Now, serving backbencher Joel Fitzgibbon is telling his colleagues to get a grip, ditch the watermelon fantasies, and avoid electoral oblivion.

I was, I should admit, wrong to write that there were no federal Labor MPs with a working background any more. Fitzgibbon is probably the last serving Labor MP in federal parliament with a blue-collar working background. Even more importantly, Fitzgibbon was a small business operator.

All of that means that he has uncommon good sense for a modern Labor MP.

For months, Fitzgibbon has been challenging Labor, and its socialist leader Anthony Albanese, to wake up to themselves. The idea that coal is going to be imminently replaced by “renewables” is arrant nonsense and Fitzgibbon, who represents the coal-mining, electricity generating Hunter region, knows it.

Australia’s coal generators are ageing and will come to the end of their physical and economic lives at some point: the Liddell plant in NSW’s Hunter Valley in 2023, Queensland’s youngest in 2050.

But the lion’s share of Australia’s coal is exported, mainly to Asia. Each year we export about $26bn worth of thermal coal for electricity generation and $43bn worth of metallurgical coal for steelmaking. In the absence of the still-mythical “green steel” revolution, the growing nations of Asia are going to be hungry for our high-quality metal­lurgical coal for many decades to come.

That is also true of our iron ore, the other ingredient critical to the steelmaking process. I know of no economist or investor predicting the demise of iron ore in the foreseeable future

The idea that coal is “dying” is ludicrous. Especially on a global scale.

Global seaborne thermal coal volumes doubled between 2006 and 2019. But predicting global demand for thermal coal is challenging[…]

Despite demand uncertainty, investors have expressed confidence in the industry. In thermal coal-dominated NSW, $6bn worth of expansion projects await regulatory approval. Those who transport our coal by rail to port also have capacity expansion plans. In arriving at their decisions, these fully funded investors no doubt have taken note of what’s happening in Asia.

The Australian

Most importantly, Australian coal is a market-leader in terms of quality and price. Despite high wages in Australia – as Fitzgibbon points out, good news for Australian workers – technological innovation keeps Australian coal competitive.

From an environmental point of view, Australian coal is also by far the best option. Across Asia, new coal-fired power stations are proliferating. This is the plain reality. Australia high-quality black coal creates less pollution and generates more energy than the dirty brown coal elsewhere. In which case, shutting down Australia’s coal industry will actually increase global emissions even more.

The main challenge the Australian coal industry should be undertaking is breaking its addiction to the Chinese market. Planned expansion in Indonesia, India, Japan and Vietnam is equal to China’s. These are the markets Australian coal exporters should be chasing. Indeed, the Greens’ great bugaboo, the Adani mine in Queensland, is solely planned to supply India.

In trying to shut down Australia’s coal industry, the Australian left are on a path to not just wiping out thousands of Australian jobs – and the local economies that depend on them – but actually increasing global CO₂ emissions.

Joel Fitzgibbon can see it. Unless the rest of his party can get some sense knocked into them, they’ll rightly cop another drubbing at the next election.

Please share this article so that others can discover The BFD