Former US vice president and climate change campaigner says providing funding for infrastructure to support Adani coal mine is ‘just nuts’

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Any move by the Australian government to subsidise coal-fired power would be “crazy” and providing funding for infrastructure to support the Adani coal mine is “just nuts,” former US vice president and climate change campaigner Al Gore has said.

“Globally, the world is moving rapidly away from subsidies to fossil fuels,” he said. “It would be odd if Australia went in the opposite direction and subsidised coal. It’s impolitic of me to say it, but it would be crazy.”

The Adani Group’s proposed $16bn Carmichael coal mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin, which is yet to get finance but has been promised $1bn from the Australian government to build a rail line to port, was particularly unwise, Gore said.

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“The Adani mine doesn’t have its financing, I hope it never gets its financing,” he said. “It’s not my place to meddle with your politics, but truly, this is nuts.”

Gore made the comments at the end of a presentation to the Investor Group on Climate Change, in a Q&A with Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor.

It follows weeks of concerted lobbying by the Minerals Council of Australia, which has argued the federal government should consider introducing a reverse auction scheme to deploy dispatchable power into the grid, which would allow so-called “high-efficiency low-emissions” coal power stations to compete with wind and solar.

The auction could be designed in such a way to favour coal-fired power, despite wind and hydro power being cheaper.

On Wednesday, energy minister Josh Frydenberg said the government had no plans to build a new coal-fired power station but if the market supported it “then we will support that”.

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Without policy levers in favour of coal, Gore said the declining cost of both renewable energy and battery storage made it “now the dominant reality in energy markets”.

“Most people assume that the coal industry is in a terminal decline,” he said. “The market capitalisation of the global coal industry has declined … I think the figure is almost 90% in the last seven our eight years. It’s quite dramatic. The world is turning away from coal.”

Federal policy leadership was helpful and would provide additional certainty for investors, but it was not necessary, he said. Earlier, Gore said the United States was working towards its Paris Agreement targets through actions taken at a state and local level, despite US President Donald Trump opting out.

“And if there’s another president elected, please God ... the new president within 30 days can come back in,” he said.

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Gore said he will encourage Australian premiers and chief ministers to make similar commitments at a meeting in Melbourne on Thursday, before the Council of Australian Governments energy meeting on Friday.

“As in the US, here in Australia many of the most important levers are in the hands of the state premiers and mayors. I think they do, particularly if they act together … have the ability to create much more certainty for investors.”

Examples of that commitment could include a renewable energy target, such as the Victorian government’s commitment to generating 40% of its electricity by renewables by 2025, or an emissions reduction target, such as Queensland’s announcement on Tuesday of a zero net emissions target by 2050.

“If Queensland can do it then any state in Australia can,” Gore said.