Australia’s conservative leaders have rejected the idea of abandoning coal production. However, in the coal regions, the inhabitants are preparing to turn the page on this polluting fossil fuel.
The first coal mine was discovered 230 years ago by escaped convicts near the town of Newcastle on the south-eastern coast of the mainland island.
This moment marks the beginning of the long relationship between Australia and this fuel which is one of the main emitters of greenhouse gases on the planet.
It brings in billions of dollars annually and Newcastle is the world’s largest coal exporting port.
Nathan Clements was born and raised in the nearby town of Singleton, which he calls “the heart of coal mining”.
“I don’t mean to say that coal is everything, but it represents a lot”.
A train carrying coal passes the cooling towers at Singleton Power Station, Australia, November 4, 2021 / AFP
“My older brother worked in a mine, my father still works in a mine. When my turn came, it was normal to enter this sector”, explains the young man of 26 years who, for seven years, has been an electrician in extraction equipment.
Around Singleton and the Hunter region, the economic weight of this sector is obvious.
The black of open-cast mines stands out in the middle of the forest while off shore, an armada of boats is about to return to China, India, Japan or South Korea with tons of this ancient rock on board. .
And the Australian government hopes that nothing will change.
– Awareness –
Recently, at the crucial COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, dozens of countries agreed to phase out this fossil fuel.
Australia, like other countries, has not signed this pledge.
“We will not close our coal mines or our coal-fired power stations,” said Australian Resources Minister Keith Pitt.
To justify himself, he notably highlighted the quality of Australian coal and the 300,000 jobs that this sector represents.
But unlike their government, people working in the Singleton and Hunter area mines are gradually resigning themselves to the industry’s demise.
“I still need a job. I still need a job,” Mr. Clements said, but this process “is inevitable”.
For him, there has been a slow realization that his career might not be like that of his father, who will retire next year when Muswellbrook – the oldest open-cast coal mine in Australia – will close after 115 years of operation.
Talking about the future of this sector is now less taboo than a few years ago and people have expressed their doubts more since the recent disasters that have hit the country, he said.
“In many people, I noticed a change in attitude during devastating forest fires in 2019-2020,” he recalls.
Many politicians in Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Conservative coalition have close ties to the mining industry.
– Innovate –
However, the mining giants are starting to withdraw, like BHP and Rio Tinto which are already preparing their exit and selling part of their assets in this sector.
Official figures show that the number of people directly working in this sector is 44,600, less than half of Australians employed by McDonald’s.
Some players fear that the comfortable salaries of some will soon be a distant memory.
Others prefer to remain optimistic about “innovation,” such as Sam Mella of Beyond Zero Emissions, a think tank that works to diversify businesses.
She stresses that infrastructures such as the port, the rail network, universities and research institutes are a valuable asset for the region.
“We have this fantastic legacy that we can build on,” she says, hoping that “Hunter is paving the way for a post-carbon economy.”
General view of the world’s largest coal export port in Newcastle, Australia, November 4, 2021 / AFP
So far there is no silver bullet, no single technology or project to save the whole region or replace coal.
The question is whether the transition will be done quickly enough for employees like Mr. Clements.
“My fear is that when the market ends up saying + no, we are no longer interested +, we don’t have a plan and that a lot of people will lose their jobs”, underlines the electrician.
In the meantime, he clings to the idea that there is still a little bit of time before that happens.
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