Offers roadmap for coal phase-out

Image: Pixabay - Coal will need to be phased out of the world's economy to meet the climate change challenge, but this can work properly only if social objectives and local stakeholders are involved in the process, an international group of researchers argue in a paper published today. Phasing out coal requires a process of 'just transition' that focus on the rights and livelihoods of workers and agreed roadmaps, appropriate policy instruments, and effective ways to include workers, regions and industry in the process, the group say. They argue that coal phase out must be seen as fair and take account of political realities, which may mean effectively compensating affected groups and counterbalancing powerful vested interests. The study has been published. It is led by researchers at the Mercator Institute in Berlin and co-authored by academics and researchers from Australia, the UK, Germany, India and the United States. Professor Frank Jotzo from The Australian National University (ANU) is part of the author team. "In Australia, coal use is invariably on the way out, as renewable energy is now the cheaper way of producing electricity from new plants, and Australia's coal power plant fleet is relatively old.