There remains over 700 million people in the world without access to electricity. Two billion people do not have access to clean cooking methods. Because of this more than 3 million people die every year from the burning of dangerous fuels in their own homes.
When people are without electric or gas-powered air-conditioning, heating or cooking, they must burn whatever they can get their hands on to survive. Coal, wood, straw and even dung are sometimes used all of which emit dangerous organic matter which can damage lungs and lead to respiratory diseases.
This is the biggest environmental issue in our world by far. Much bigger than climate change. 3 million people per year don’t die from climate change and they never will.
The best way to reduce these deaths is to increase the number of people that have access to electricity and modern appliances. Anything that restricts or limits the access to affordable electricity means that more people die unnecessarily.
While coal burnt in an indoor stove can be deadly, a modern coal fired power station can be a lifesaver. This is because modern power stations treat the gases that are emitted when coal is burned. The organic matter, and other pollutants, are removed and often turned into harmless, commercial products. So whenever green activists are successful in stopping countries from building modern coal fired power stations, they are costing lives.
Bill Gates made this point in a recent online post about climate change efforts:
multilateral lenders have been pushed by wealthy shareholders to stop financing fossil fuel projects, with the hope of limiting emissions by leaving oil, gas, and coal in the ground. This pressure has had almost no impact on global emissions, but it has made it harder for low-income countries to get low-interest loans for power plants that would bring reliable electricity to their homes, schools, and health clinics … remember that climate change is not the biggest threat to the lives and livelihoods of people in poor countries, and it won’t be in the future.
Mr Gates makes the point in this post that while climate change will have “serious consequences”, “it will not lead to humanity’s demise.” Mr Gates effectively gives up on the net zero goal admitting that we “don’t yet have all the tools we need to meet the growing demand for energy without increasing carbon emissions.”
His overdue realism has been matched in the past week by the International Energy Agency’s latest version of its annual World Energy Outlook. That report shows that the current policies of governments will not make any material reduction in emissions by 2050, let alone get to net zero.
Global emissions reached 38 billion tonnes in 2024. The IEA estimates that the world will still emit 38 billion tonnes in 2050 (although it will be slightly lower at the first decimal point).
This is because the IEA sees that the developing world will continue to install air-conditioning and buy cars. Oil and gas demand is projected to continue to grow until 2050 and beyond. The much-hyped AI boom is important, but it only will account for 10 per cent of the world’s increased electricity use.
Even coal demand is expected to continue to grow until just before 2030. The IEA predicts that it will then slowly fall but by 2050, the world will still be mining just under 5 billion tonnes of coal per year. Australia mines less than 10 per cent of this so there would still be plenty of demand for our high-quality coal.
Indeed, the world needs to mine more coal in the first 50 years of this century than it ever did in history before this century. That is how big the demand from Asia, and soon Africa probably, is for the same living standards we have. To produce this amount of coal, the IEA predicts that more than $250 billion of investment per year is needed in new coal supplies.
I am proud that Australian coal has helped billions emerge from poverty. I hope that we continue to help billions more by continuing to invest in Australian coal because it is the best coal in the world. More investment in Australian coal is a good thing for the world’s poorest and most disadvantaged people.
