He is a luxury we can no longer afford.

A recent report titled The Critical Decade 2013-Climate Change Science, Risks and Responses states that Australia’s fossil fuel industries, including of course coal, should be phased out because of their contribution to climate change. 

The report recommends that if Australia is to pull its weight in combating climate change, most of its coal reserves will have to be left in the ground.

Australia has enough fossil fuel reserves to produce the equivalent of approximately 51 billion tonnes  of greenhouse gases. If burnt, they would significantly contribute to an escalation of the earth’s temperature towards dangerous global warming.

To add to the woes of  Old King Coal is the growing realisation that coal is not the cheapest energy alternative when its true cost is taken into consideration.  

The true cost of coal includes direct environmental damage to water sources, land and food production, and infrastructure damage from extreme weather events due to rising greenhouse emissions caused by its consumption.

A major cost which must be considered when assessing the true cost of coal is that of the effect on human health caused by its mining, transporting and burning. All of these activities increase air pollution through the release of particulates and noxious gases. 

When environmental damage and health factors are considered, coal could well be the most expensive energy alternative.

Old King Coal is being shown the door by the finance sector as well. The Deutsche Bank has warned that China’s use of thermal coal will peak by 2017, which will have an effect on coal  prices. 

This is compounded by the fact that China intends to set a cap on greenhouse emissions by 2016, which has major implications for the coal industry in Australia. 

Carbon pricing also contributes to the demise of Old King Coal. Australia exports coal to countries such as Japan, China, South Korea and the European Union.

All of these countries are considering strategies to reduce carbon emissions through carbon pricing, which is bad news for coal.

Additionally, Old King Coal has to compete with an ever-increasing renewable energy market, which is becoming more and more popular with individual households and communities, and is opening up possibilities for energy provision using proven technology used to harness clean, renewable, free sources of energy on a large and small scale.

Old King Coal has served us well for 300 years but we are starting to realise his true cost, when we factor in the damage he has been doing to the environment and to our health.

We now have at our disposal proven alternatives that  don’t harm our environment  or our health, and are powered by free fuel.  The time has now come for him to give way to a cleaner, healthier cheaper energy future.