The AFR has a nice except from work by Professor Ross Garnaut today on China’s peaking coal demand:
China’s appetite for thermal coal may already be in decline, allowing Beijing to make bolder promises to reduce carbon emissions, according Ross Garnaut, one of Australia’s most eminent economists and China watchers.
Professor Garnaut projects that China’s consumption of thermal coal will fall at an average annual rate of 0.7 per cent from now to 2020.
…“Australian-based coal producers have made large investments in expanding capacity at home and abroad since the outlook changed in 2011…Little of the incremental investment since 2011 will return the cost of capital to shareholders and all of it lowers returns to past investments by lowering price. Catching up with reality sooner rather than later will limit the amount of good money that is thrown after bad.”
This is very good news for the planet if tough news for parts of Australia in the short term.
