Swedish climate worrier Greta Thunberg again castigated Australia for its insistence on mining coal despite her complaints, adding a call Saturday for an end to the activity to her list of climate demands to be delivered at the upcoming World Economic Forum in Davos.
Thunberg urged German industrial giant Siemens AG to abandon its plan to provide equipment to a massive new coal mining operation in the state of Queensland’s Galilee Basin.
Adani is the name of the new operation run by India’s Adani Power which the Australian government approved last year.
Siemens is supposed to provide part of the signalling system for the railway lines necessary for moving the coal out of the plant and to the coast, a move Thunberg has slammed.
As Breitbart News reported, Thunberg has already issued a long list of demands for Davos, warning she will admonish world leaders for providing subsidies to the oil and gas industry, which is responsible, in part, for advancing civilization by providing abundant and affordable energy.
The World Economic Forum website posted a commentary written by Thunberg and other youth activists and published in the Guardian.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) revealed last month Australia’s coal exports are expected to rise over the next five years on the back of growing demand from Asia, as Breitbart News reported.
The report, published by the IEA on 17 December, found demand for coal in India could rise by 4.6 percent by 2024 and by 5 percent in Indonesia and Vietnam. As a result, Australia’s total coal production is expected to rise 1.4 percent annually from 409 million t in 2018 to 444 million t in 2024.
Coal exports were worth an estimated AUS$67 billion (US$45.9 billion) to the nation’s economy in the 2018 – 2019 financial year, overtaking iron ore as Australia’s most valuable export.
Matt Canavan, Australia’s Minister for Resources, said the report supported the need for new coal mines in the states of New South Wales and Queensland. He commented: “We will need more than Adani.”
The Adani mine, which received final environmental approval in June, is expected to produce at least 10 million t of thermal coal every year.
Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison has slammed previous calls from radical climate activists to end the export of coal – an industry worth $67billion a year to the nation’s economy – as a new report showed global demand is set to keep increasing over the next decade and beyond.
Morrison, who once once famously brandished a lump of coal in parliament, crying, “This is coal – don’t be afraid!” vowed those climate protesters – including Greta Thunberg – would not be dictating Australia’s energy or trade policy.
Greta Thunberg has never visited Australia.
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