THE Federal and NSW governments are under pressure over the lack of planning for the Hunter region's transition from coal after submissions from councils, trade unions, environment groups, Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper and the Port of Newcastle calling for government action.

HUNTER coal mines are competing in an "oversupplied" global market that will see Australia's thermal coal export earnings slump from $26 billion in 2018-19 to a projected $18 billion by 2020-21, says a two-year forecast by the Federal Government's Office of the Chief Economist.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor's Liddell taskforce told Singleton 'comfortable' with Liddell closure plans.

LACK of government leadership is the biggest issue facing the Hunter in the lead-up to the closure of Liddell power station and as the region transitions away from coal, Hunter councils have told a federal/state Liddell taskforce.

FEDERAL Energy Minister Angus Taylor's announcement of a federal/state taskforce to look at the implications of the Liddell coal-fired power station closure in April, 2023 was panned by critics as a guise for propping up coal.

STUDENTS from across Australia have written to Hunter coal workers on the eve of a climate action strike in Newcastle today, after Wednesday's landmark rejection of the Bylong coal mine because of "intergenerational inequity".

Looking at the price graph for thermal coal shows how quickly the industry can go from boom to bust - like any commodity traded across the world.

The NSW inquiry into the sustainability of energy supply and resources is an opportunity to give the people of the Hunter a seat at the table in diversifying and preparing our region for changes in energy and export markets. Make sure you grab your chance to have your say by making a submission by 15 September

Market focus remains on BHP’s residual thermal coal businesses with investment banks Macquarie and JPMorgan doing work on exploring a potential exit of the business.

The Taranaki 2050 Roadmap will help the region’s communities, enterprises, and residents navigate New Zealand’s shift to the low-emissions economy of the future, while ensuring the important aspects of life in Taranaki can be shared by everyone.

IEEFA, 25th July 2019: The departure of private capital from coal power in the past two years risks becoming a stampede to the exit

The Age, 17 July 2019: Plotting NSW's transition away from coal will be the subject of a parliamentary inquiry, including how the state can make the most of renewable energy supplies.

Under consideration is believed to be its Mount Arthur Coal business in NSW and the 33 per cent interest in its long-life Colombian mine Cerrejon.

The Age, 14th July 2019: Hans Mohlek stood at the gates of the Prosper-Haniel coal mine in the Ruhr Valley in the west of Germany on a warm summer afternoon earlier this month, looked up and wept quietly.

The mine closed last December and Mohlek was among the last workers to leave. But what moved him so much on a recent visit with a handful of journalists was not just end of mining at Prosper-Haniel, but the end of a way of life that it represented.

10 July 2019 (IEEFA Australia) – Australia will struggle to seek alternative markets for its thermal coal as a declining Japanese market increasingly turns towards cheaper renewable energy solutions, a new IEEFA report out today has found.

The report, Japanese Thermal Coal Consumption Approaching Long Term Decline: Australia’s Biggest Export Destination to Transition Away from Coal, examines the momentum away from thermal coal in Australia’s key export market.

The Age, 10th July 2019:  A Chinese renewable energy expert has warned Australia against investing in new coal mines because her country, one of Australia's biggest coal customers, is moving rapidly away from coal-based energy production.

Australian thermal coal prices have dropped this year as China officials officials slowed customs clearance.

Bochum, Germany: While the ink is still drying on the approval for Australia's new controversial coal mine, Germany is working to extinguish the coal industry entirely. Read the full article from The Age here

June 27, 2019. German social historian Professor Stefan Berger and Director of Global And European Affairs with German mining trade union IG BCE Michael Mersmann speak to AAP about the lessons Australia can learn from Germany's exit from coal mining. 

BHP is working on a plan to change the types of coal it produces in NSW  in response to the Chinese import curbs that shocked coal markets earlier this year.

China is the main buyer of export thermal coal from BHP's Mt Arthur mine in the Hunter Valley, but unofficial import restrictions on Australian coal shipments this year have prompted BHP to study ways to produce more of the coal specification demanded by Japanese customers.

The head of the international trade union movement has warned Australian unionists against putting coal jobs ahead of environmental concerns, as the CFMMEU pushes Adani for a commitment to long-term jobs at its controversial Queensland mine.

A new material capable of revolutionising energy storage systems is on the verge of being commercialised at the University of Newcastle. Read the article in Newcastle Herald here

If ever there was a moment in history that highlighted the tension between the promise of renewable energy and an entrenched reliance on the coal industry it is the Hunter Region in 2019. Read the article from Matt Kelly of the Newcastle Herald here 

If Australia is to move on from coal, how do we do it? An obvious gap in the Federal Election debates was a comprehensive plan for an industry, and employment, to replace coal in the regions.  Geraldine Doogue speaks with Chris Briggs, Research principal at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, at the University of Technology, Sydney and  Professor Frank Jotzo, Director of the Centre for Climate Economics and Policy, ANU Crawford School of Public Policy and director of the Australian-German Energy Transition Hub. Listen now

HUNTER Valley coal prices have slumped by a quarter in the past year as a number of Asian countries move to reduce their reliance on coal for electricity generation, a leading industry journal, the Australian Coal Report, has confirmed. Read more here

Investors lost hundreds of billions by GE’s misreading of the energy transition

June 6, 2019 (IEEFA U.S.) – Investors lost billions when the (once) most valuable company in the world, General Electric Company (GE) and its largest shareholders – BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street and Fidelity – misjudged the pace of the global energy transition and subsequent collapse of the gas turbine and thermal power construction market, a new IEEFA report finds.

Alexandra Heath, Head of Economic Analysis addresses the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies 
Perth – 5 June 2019 Excerpt:

Global demand for Australia's commodities:

One of the biggest factors affecting the global demand for commodities is population growth – more people need more places to live, more food to eat and demand more energy. The process of industrialisation and urbanisation also increases demand for commodities, although the composition of that demand can change as countries become richer. For example, diets become increasingly protein-based and construction becomes more steel-intensive. The increase in demand from these factors will be offset to some extent over time by technological progress that allows commodity inputs to be used more efficiently. There are also policy considerations, such as governments' commitments to the Paris Agreement, that will affect the composition of commodity demand going forward.

The CEO of the Minerals Council of NSW, Stephen Galilee, doesn't seem keen for the Hunter to diversify its economy and prepare for the opportunities and challenges that will come as the countries we sell coal to switch their economies towards renewable energy. Read Daniel McLaughlin's opinion piece in the Newcastle Herald here

Thermal coal used for electricity provides only 13% of royalties to Queensland’s budget compared to coking coal used for steel manufacturing - which provides 87% in royalties, a new IEEFA report finds.

Mining Monthly, 31st May 2019: The New South Wales government has set itself the lofty target of increasing the value of mining production by 30% by 2020 from its $15 billion export figure in 2012-13. This ambitious goal is expected to be driven by the Hunter region, which is the major contributor to NSW coal exports, which is in turn the state's biggest export. 

Approving a new thermal coal mine is gifting gold to a sector in decline.

While the Queensland government moves reactively to fast-track the approvals process of the decade-long delayed Adani thermal coal mine in the Galilee Basin, thermal coal export forecasts continue to show a terminal decline globally in the long term, consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement.  

Tim Buckley from IEEFA explains...

In its strategy paper BHP writes that it has "no appetite for growth in energy coal" regardless of asset attractiveness.
So even if it is cheap - the Big Australian doesn't want it.

ABC News reports

Coal shifts in South Korea and China could mean big changes for the region

FOR nearly a decade a South Korean Government-owned company has bought up land in the beautiful Bylong valley between Denman and Mudgee to establish a coal mine. KEPCO, which is 51 per cent owned by the government, identified Bylong as the place to mine high quality coal to export to South Korea and keep its coal-fired power stations delivering electricity to the domestic market.

State government forecasts show the threat to the Hunter Valley’s coal industry is yet to be taken seriously. Read the latest from IEEFA here

Almost a third of prime Hunter wine country is covered by coal exploration licences, new mapping shows. Find it here

Australia’s largest export customer for thermal coal is scrapping plans to build power plants. Read more

Communities in the New South Wales Hunter Valley need to apply more pressure to speed-up the process of transitioning from coal to renewables sources of energy. That was message being delivered at a summit held last month in NSW town of Singleton, a week before the announcement of plans to build a new coal-fired power station in the region.

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That was message being delivered at a summit held last month in NSW town of Singleton, a week before the announcement of plans to build a new coal-fired power station in the region. ABC's Greg Miskelly reports

The winds of change are in the air, and they carry no coal dust.

Read Rob McLaughlin's opinion piece in the Newcastle Herald here

As many countries shift away from coal mining and the industry finds itself under increasing scrutiny, some in the Hunter are worried the region is running out of time to restructure its economy.  Listen here

We're transitioning away from coal, for the better.

Carl Shoupe and his son Scott experienced firsthand the quick and devastating collapse of the mining industry in Kentucky, where during the downturn eight mines closed in one day. Now they're warning the industry in the NSW Hunter region to have a Plan B.

Read the full ABC News article here

Twenty years after the end of steel, the Hunter Valley stares at the end of coal. The signs have been there, but the ringing of the last drinks’ bell came on February 20 from Glencore, the valley’s biggest miner. Read the article in the Newcastle Herald here

The scientific consensus is clear: climate change is happening, making extreme climate events like heatwaves, bushfires, droughts, floods and severe storms regular occurrences. Across the globe governments are responding by transferring power generation to clean energy based on renewables, but NSW continues to lag behind, relying on coal power generation while doing little to help coal communities smoothly transition to new jobs and industries in the renewable energy sector.

NSW independent MPs Alex Greenwich, Joe McGirr and Greg Piper have released a policy to introduce a ten year adjustment strategy for NSW coal mining communities. Read about it here

On a week where the world's biggest thermal coal exporter Glencore is talking about capping annual coal production at 2019 levels to "transition for a low-carbon economy" then we know we are living through changing energy times. Glencore's boss Ivan Glasenberg said we believe this transition is a key part of the global response to the increasing risks posed by climate change.

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Australia's largest coal miner Glencore has succumbed to shareholder pressure to take action to address climate change, and announced it will cap its global coal output.

Read the news here

Environmentalists campaigning for an orderly transition away from coal, say the Hunter must begin preparing now.

It comes amid figures from the mining industry’s peak body, showing it’s contributing billions to our economy, and employing thousands.

https://www.nbnnews.com.au/2019/02/19/environmental-group-continues-anti-coal-campaign/

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten announced last week that a federal Labor government would create a Just Transition Authority to oversee Australia's transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. This echoes community calls for a " fast and fair " energy transition to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

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