Australia sells South Korea $6bn of coal a year, so Canberra unease over the governor’s anti-coal message is unsurprising

For a South Korean presidential hopeful, Ahn Hee-Jung is not what you would expect.

He appears younger than his age of 52 years would suggest – an age that already makes him positively youthful by Korean political standards.

He has a casual demeanour, and before sitting down with the Guardian in the lobby of a hotel in Sydney, Australia, he is stopped by Korean tourists desperate to get a selfie with him – something he appears to enjoy but his minder says regularly delays him for meetings.

And for a governor of a province – South Chungcheong – that hosts the majority of South Korea’s coal power, with 29 massive coal power stations including the biggest in the world, he’s not who you would expect to be spearheading a “coal phase-out alliance” and declaring his province “post-coal”. But that’s exactly what he’s done.

On his visit to Australia, which sells more than $6bn worth of coal to South Korea each year, he has a message for the country and its precious coal exports: the world is changing and coal will soon be history.

Energy economics group says export market for Australian coal will decline Read more

“After the Paris agreement in 2015, I think everything should change,” he says. “Because after all, that is the global consensus, and that is the global commitment that involved countries have made.”

During South Korea’s Democratic party primary contest in 2017, Ahn took full advantage of his relative youth, and the exploding appetite for change in Korea.



Following the scandal that led to the impeachment of President Park, and the revelations she was allowing business conglomerates (known as “chaebols” – huge family-run conglomerates such as Samsung) to meddle in state affairs, his approach struck a nerve.

“Let’s change the world together with a young president, Ahn Hee-Jung!” the Korean press reported him saying at the launch of his presidential primary campaign. “We need a young leader who can create a new world with his mind, body and actions, not just someone who talks about new things. This the beginning of a shift into a new era.”

Ahn lost by a significant margin to Moon Jae-in, who went on to win the presidency, but through the contest Ahn became famed for his Obamaesque messages and his youthful demeanour.

Ahn’s distaste for coal appears shared by his party, and by President Moon. Since winning the presidency, the Moon administration has committed to building no new coal power stations, has been looking at how to halt the construction of partially built ones, and is expanding the country’s production of wind and solar.

Beyond the moves that South Korea is taking at a national level under the leadership of Moon, Ahn has personally spearheaded a regional network of sub-national governments that is aiming to make coal a thing of the past.



At a forum of local governments his province hosted last year, Ahn launched what he describes as a “vision” for phasing out coal throughout East Asia.

He said he was committed to creating the “East Asia Coal Phase Out Alliance,” which would be a network of sub-national governments committed to phasing out coal.



Describing the group, Ahn refers to other moves around the world to achieve similar goals. He points to the “Powering Past Coal Alliance,” which aims to phase out reliance on coal power by 2030, and includes both national governments and subnational governments including Washington and Oregon in the US.

Ahn also refers to the Under2 Coalition, which includes a large range of subnational governments who have signed an agreement aiming to radically lower emissions in line with keeping global warming below 2C by 2100.

East Asian governments are under-represented in the Under2 Coalition, and a locally organised alliance could shift the balance.

Before interviewing Ahn, the Guardian was told by an officer at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade that there was some concern there that the topic of the interview was coal.



Unease in Australian government circles about Ahn’s attitude to coal is not surprising.

Australia depends heavily on its thermal coal exports. It is the world’s second-biggest exporter of coal used for generating electricity (following Indonesia) and its exports primarily go to China, Japan and South Korea – with South Korea taking more than $6bn worth of coal each year.



But recent Australian government forecasts of increasing coal demand from South Korea have been brought into question following Korea’s anti-coal moves, and the more radical those moves, the faster Australian coal exports will decline.

Coal was no doubt among the issues Australian diplomats wanted to speak with Ahn about when they invited him. His visit was part of the “special visits program”, which the government says is targeted at “influential foreign officials … who are likely to be in positions which deal with issues of direct relevance to Australia’s foreign and trade policy interests.”

Julie Bishop (@JulieBishopMP) Meeting South Korea's Governor An Hee-jung to discuss working together to meet regional challenges & #WinterOlympics2018 ~🏂❄️🇰🇷🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/nnGrchOsSo

Regardless, Ahn’s message remains clear while speaking with the Guardian. Asked whether Australia should prepare for a declining market for coal, Ahn encourages Australia to take action to implement the Paris agreement.

“Australia is also signed onto the Paris agreement, so under this agreement, I’m sure the Australian government and citizens of Australia are well aware of the commitment they made, and ... will be doing their part in order to implement [this] agreement into action,” Ahn says.

“I’m also a firm believer that this kind of energy transition will bring both crisis as well as opportunities. Crisis of course for the existing coal industries, but opportunities for everyone involved in the new renewable industry, as well as citizens around the globe as well.”

Ahn calls on Australia and South Korea to stand together and take leadership in the transition away from coal.

“I think it’s clear that by leading this kind of energy transition, those countries will be able to increase more jobs and create more added value,” he says.

“So as part of the Paris agreement, I think Australia and the Republic of Korea should stand next to each other and move forward together.”