Australian Miners Refuse to Support Move Away from Coal Despite Climate Commission’s Call for Slowdown in Fossil Fuel Mining

The Minerals Council of Australia is not supporting the call by the Climate Commission for the resource industry to move away from coal as the commission pushes for a slowdown in mining of fossil fuels.

In its report released on Monday titled The Critical Decade 2013, the commission suggested cutting fossil fuel extraction to slow its consumption.

However, Minerals Council of Australia Chief Executive Mitch Hooke pointed out that the coal industry contributes $40 billion dollars to the Aussie economy and slowing down extraction or consumption is not worth the risk.

"I mean, at the end of the day, this is not a production push, this is a market pull, and the global market is where the demand for coal is coming from," ABC quoted Mr Hooke.

He said he could not find the environmental dividend behind the argument that reducing coal's role is an economic cost the country must bear because of the environmental benefit from such a move.

The commission stressed on the urgency of curbing the global appetite and limiting coal's extraction is one solution and it aims to keep global warming below 2 degrees for the century. Models made estimated that between 2000 and 2050, 1,000 billion tonnes of fossil fuels could be burnt, accounting for 40 per cent of the limit.

Professor Lesley Hughes, a Climate commissioner, stressed that the report lays out the scientific facts about climate change which it hopes to guide the government, policy makers in making decisions, but added it is not telling any particular industry what it must or must not do.

The commission's report is considered a last attempt to convince politicians as well as Australian taxpayers to retain the carbon tax amid a likely win by the Opposition in the Sept 14 election and Coalition leader Tony Abbott's vow to repeal the carbon tax law.

The report pointed to Queensland as the first Australian state likely to feel the full impact of climate change with over 35,000 homes at the risk of flooding as seas warm and water level rises. It also warned of more severe cyclones and risks to the state's $17.5 billion tourism industry if its Gold Coast, Great Barrier Reef and rainforest would be hit.