Tony Abbott wrong on coal being ‘good for humanity’, Oxfam report finds

Tony Abbott is mistaken in claiming coal is “good for humanity”, with the fossil fuel causing numerous health problems and ineffective in delivering electricity to the world’s poor compared with renewables, a new Oxfam report has found. The Powering Up Against Poverty study argues the Australian government’s continued embrace of coal exports is out of step with an international shift towards clean energy and would do little to help the one in seven of the world’s population who do not have electricity to light their homes or cook food. Abbott has said coal, a major export commodity for Australia, is the “foundation of prosperity” for the foreseeable future. The prime minister, along with the mining industry, has said the fossil fuel will raise living standards in developing countries while bolstering Australia’s economy. “We are very concerned by this myopic focus on coal,” said Dr Simon Bradshaw, author of the Oxfam report. “Coal is the single biggest contributor to climate change, the impacts of which are most felt by poorer people through floods, drought, cyclones and changes to food patterns. “We can clearly see in rural areas, and even rapidly growing urban populations, that renewable energy is a much more affordable and healthy solution for developing countries than coal.” Decentralised energy systems, such as solar, can be deployed quicker and more cheaply than coal, when its cost to the climate and health are factored in, Oxfam said. Nearly 85% of people without electricity live in remote rural areas, separated from centralised coal-fired grid systems. Coal exacts an “enormous toll” on people’s health, the report states, citing UK medical journal the Lancet’s recent finding that a global shift to renewable energy will precent seven million deaths a year from air pollution. The Lancet study said climate change, fuelled by the burning of coal as well as other fossil fuels, presents a “potentially catastrophic risk to human health” through heat stress, floods, drought, extreme weather events, air pollution and the spread of disease. According to the World Health Organisation, climate change is due to cause an additional 250,000 extra deaths a year between 2030 and 2050. Oxfam’s report states that global investment in renewables surpassed fossil fuels in 2011, with an estimated US$3.7tn due to be invested in solar technology over the next 25 years. China, which is a key market for Australia’s coal exports, reduced its coal consumption by 2.9% last year, with the country spending US$83.3bn on renewable energy projects in 2014 – more than the all of Europe. Meanwhile, India, another key coal destination for Australia, has set a target of 100GW of energy from solar systems by 2022. “We aren’t having an honest conversation in Australia about these realities,” Bradshaw said. “Coal is on the way out in many countries and that trend will only gather pace. We have everything at our disposal to rapidly embrace a renewable future. “Australia is a country acutely vulnerable to climate change so there’s a big national interest in keeping warming below 2C. It’s in our interest to help developing countries ramp up renewables as well as supply climate finance and so on.” Bradshaw said Labor’s new aim for Australia to transition is own coal-heavy electricity supply to 50% renewables was “a good start” but more needed to be done. The goal was announced in the wake of Labor’s deal with the federal government to slash Australia’s renewable energy target so that around 23.5% of electricity will come from clean sources by 2020. Abbott has called Labor’s 50% renewables goal “bizarre” and warned it may cost “perhaps $60bn or more.” Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecast that Australia will subsidise coal, petroleum and gas consumption to the tune of $41bn in 2015, equivalent to nearly 2% of Australia’s GDP. In May, the IMF revealed that, globally, taxpayers are supporting fossil fuels at a rate of $10m per minute. This is more than the total spent on healthcare by the world’s governments.