Glencore, one of the world's biggest coal miners, has forecast its global output will fall by more than 25 per cent but its Australian mines will be among the last to close.

Fresh research from energy consultancy Reputex shows investment aligned with the NSW renewables road map will provide a cheaper and lower emissions option to replace AGL's ageing Liddell coal fired power plant compared to the business as usual case and the federal government's preferred gas-peaker option.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Financing for coal projects is drying up at ever increasing rates as more countries target zero carbon emissions amid an energy transition sweeping the world, participants at Asia's biggest gathering of the coal industry said on Tuesday.

Funding for coal projects in India has plunged for the second straight year, new figures showed Tuesday, as the world's second biggest coal importer weans itself off the dirty fuel.

THE Hunter-Central Coast and the Illawarra are set to become formal Renewable Energy Zones after an amended Electricity Infrastructure Investment Bill was passed in the NSW Parliament lower house, Labor MPs said last night.

AGL Energy has paused its Newcastle gas plant decision and is reviewing a giant battery investment at Liddell, amid uncertainty around the NSW government’s controversial energy blueprint, in a move that may also nix Scott Morrison’s hopes for 1000 megawatts of new power capacity to be committed in the state by April.

THE Hunter is the centre of national and international political attention over coal, renewables and climate change after Joel Fitzgibbon's explosive exit a week ago from the federal Labor opposition front bench.

The New South Wales government has quietly made a new commitment to transform the now coal-dependent Hunter Region as a hub of new renewable energy and storage projects as part of its broad and ground-breaking plans to transition the state’s grid from coal to renewables.

If you didn't know it already, there's no better place to be than the Hunter after Energy Minister Matt Kean announced plans to turn NSW into a renewable energy superpower.

Glencore, the world's biggest thermal coal trader, said on Monday it plans to lay off contractors at its coal operations in Australia's New South Wales state due to a prolonged market downturn.

AMERICAN coal company Peabody Energy is again in financial trouble, putting a question mark over its important Australian operations, including the Hunter's Wambo mine and its complex at Wilpinjong, near Mudgee, which exports out of Newcastle.

ALTHOUGH the timing was unintentional, the launch of a new Hunter organisation wanting a seat at the post-coal decision-making table comes at the same time as another indicator of the industry's declining fortunes; new tonnage figures showing a 5 per cent fall in shipments for the year so far through Newcastle's main coal export terminal.

EIGHT unions and five environmental groups have formed a new "jobs alliance" to counter the "failed 'jobs versus the environment' dynamic" they say is holding back the Hunter Region when it comes to energy policy and the "inevitable" transition to renewables.

Funds set aside for reclamation of coal mines in New South Wales and Queensland are caught up in a $US202 million ($288 million) claim lobbed against struggling miner Peabody Energy.

Australia's fossil fuel exporters have been put on notice of waning appetite for their product from some of their biggest customers in Asia as South Korea's adoption of a net-zero emissions target increased the share of markets committed to decarbonisation to over 70 per cent.

Pandemic should be ‘catalyst for change’, warns Blueprint Institute, which has close ties with former Liberals including Christopher Pyne

The Morrison government is urged to prepare for a shift in the global economy as major trading partners move to cut emissions. A pledge by Japan to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 underscores the risk facing Australia if it fails to prepare for the inevitable shift in the global economy and falling demand for fossil fuels, analysts say.

Demand for Australian thermal coal has peaked, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), and renewables will deliver 80 per cent of the world's energy needs in the next few years.

Australian coal miners could be forced to sell “distressed” cargoes at a discount as China looks to restrict imports of both thermal and coking coal, according to consulting major Wood Mackenzie, as shares in Australian miners tumbled on the prospect of fresh import bans.

Energy Renaissance, Australia's first lithium-ion battery manufacturer, has chosen the NSW Hunter as the location for its new $28 million battery manufacturing facility.

Australia's coal miners are headed for a $17 billion collapse in export earnings this year as the shock of the coronavirus crisis persists and more Asian power utilities switch from coal to gas.

Thermal coal mined by BHP will no longer be burned to make electricity in Australia, after the miner quietly ended the decades long connection between its NSW mine and the nearby power stations of AGL Energy.

One of the nation's largest power suppliers, EnergyAustralia, says subsidising battery installations would be the best way for the federal government to invest in the future of the power market while lifting the economy out of COVID-19.

China's plan to derive 20 per cent of its primary energy from non-fossil fuels may be brought forward by five years from 2030. Coal-fired power has been dying everywhere except where it poses the greatest threat.

Yancoal has slashed its capital spend to ride out a fall in coal prices triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic that helped push it into the red.Read the full article in the AFR 22nd Sept 2020

In the bruised days after Labor’s shock national election defeat last May, union boss Steve Murphy, a Maitland boy, thought long and hard about what went wrong – and came to a very different conclusion than the Hunter Valley’s most prominent ALP figure, Joel Fitzgibbon.

Asian thermal coal exporters are fighting an uphill battle even in new markets. The world’s largest thermal coal exporter is eyeing new markets as its largest export destinations threaten to cut imports.

Atlassian co-founder says it is ‘bullshit’ that giant fossil fuel companies need subsidies to extract gas and export it

If there is a religion in the mining industry, it is the unshakeable faith in the cyclical nature of commodity prices. But recent evidence suggests very few resources companies are willing to make the bold, countercyclical investments that the industry prides itself on.

NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean has declared hydrogen the "breakthrough that changes the world", comparing its impact on climate change to what a vaccine will do to COVID-19.

More battery storage equals less gas. Batteries are usurping the role of gas in the power system. Grid scale battery usage is increasing rapidly, and battery cost deflation is faster than wind or solar.

The New South Wales’ Liberal premier, Gladys Berejiklian, says it will not take much to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and it would be “the stuff of dreams” for an Australian Coalition government to legislate that target.

Whitehaven Coal has had a 95 per cent fall in full-year profit due to lower coal prices but management is adamant there is strong demand for its supplies in Asia.

Resources giant BHP is understood to have hired UBS to work on the $7bn sale or demerger of its coal mines.

Last month, the Japanese government announced a plan to retire its fleet of old, inefficient coal-fired generation by 2030. And what happens to coal power in Japan matters a lot to Australia.

Australia's largest energy generator, AGL, has announced the first concrete steps in shutting down its Liddell coal-fired power station in the NSW Hunter Valley, pre-empting the findings of a government taskforce examining options including extending the plant's operating life.

A NEW economic report has found regional communities are in need of support to diversify their economy so they are less dependent on mining and more resilient to "external shocks".

We’ve seen it time and time again, politicians smiling with workers in Hi Viz every time they want to add a spice of authenticity to their campaign. 

Peabody Energy has announced it will scale back it's underground mining at their Wambo mine complex near Warkworth

Energy giant AGL plans to build a grid-scale battery at Liddell Power Station in Muswellbrook. The company has lodged a scoping report with the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) for a grid-scale battery system to be located on the site, alongside the existing plant.

Another global investor, the UK’s biggest public pension fund NEST, has withdrawn funds from BHP this week because the company is profiting “from digging coal”.

COAL miners at the Bloomfield open-cut mine near Maitland have had their wages supplemented by the COVID-19 subsidy JobKeeper, mine owner Bloomfield Group has confirmed.

Two ASX-listed coal miners have been cut off the books of major superannuation fund Unisuper in another sign of the sector turning its back on the fossil fuels industry.

Glencore is working on plans to slash output from Australian coal mines in response to weak prices, in a move that will reinforce the Swiss miner's reputation as the most active manager of supply and demand in global commodity markets.