UN’s top climate adviser says Australia must phase out coal

Photo: Kelly Lacy / Pexels - Australia must phase out coal by 2030 if it is to avoid catastrophic climate change and major disruption to the economy, according to the United Nation's top climate adviser. Mr Selwin Hart, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on Climate Action, will deliver an address at the 2021 Crawford Leadership Forum kicking off at The Australian National University (ANU) today. The forum brings together political, business, public sector and academic leaders to address the major geopolitical and economic challenges facing the world. "The world is way off track from meeting the 1.5 degree Celsius goal of the Paris Agreement - a critical threshold for preventing the worst impacts of climate change," Mr Hart will tell the forum. "A pre-requisite of keeping the 1.5C goal within reach is the urgent global phase-out of coal. "Market forces alone show coal's days are numbered, as many investors increasingly abandon it in favour of renewables, which are now cheaper in most places. The growing expectation of stranded coal assets is hastening coal's decline.