Earth Equity News

Does the Huge China-Australia Coal Deal Underline Absurdity of Copenhagen Accord? By Lisa Friedman and Gayathri Vaidyanathan, ClimateWire, February 16, 2010. "Environmental activists are attacking a $60 billion deal that will keep Chinese power stations supplied with Australian coal for at least the next two decades. Under the agreement announced last week, the Australian coal and iron ore mining company Resourcehouse will build a new mining complex to give China Power International Development 30 million tons of coal annually for the next two decades. Resourcehouse Chairman Clive Palmer called it the 'biggest-ever export contract' for Australia, which is the world's leading exporter of coal. But in supplying China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, green groups are accusing Australia of ignoring the role it plays in maintaining dirty energy economies around the world.

"'It is hypocritical for Australia to on the one hand blame China for climate change and on the other hand try so hard to sell more coal to China,' said Ailun Yang of Greenpeace China. The deal, she said, 'will only lock China further up in its unhealthy dependency on coal.' Bradley Smith, spokesman for Friends of the Earth in Queensland, Australia, said it 'drives another nail into the coffin of climate change. If the project goes ahead, then emissions from the exported coal would equal 20% of Australia's total domestic emissions.' The tensions come on the heels of last year's climate change summit in Copenhagen. There, President Obama and the leaders of other industrialized nations like Australia successfully pushed China and other fast-growing developing nations to scale back the growth of carbon emissions. While the pledges are voluntary, U.S. leaders have described them as an important step in persuading all the major economies to take responsibility for their role in causing global warming."