From Euractiv:
The coal industry’s European lobbying association has said that the landmark deal to cap global warming at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris means the sector “will be hated and vilified, in the same way that slave traders were once hated and vilified”.
Brian Ricketts, Secretary-General of the European Association for Coal and Lignite (Euracoal), wrote to his members, “The climate bandwagon is rolling and gathering speed such that the fossil fuel industry will spend the coming years and decades in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.”
“This is not a sustainable position and the industry should no longer acquiesce,” he added, after accusing governments and the European Commission of being “in cahoots with protest movements”.
On Saturday (12 December), world governments approved a historic agreement to cap global warming at “well below” two degrees above pre-industrial levels, and aim for 1.5 degrees in the future.
Coal is a fossil fuel that contributes to carbon emissions and global warming. Euracoal styles itself as “the voice of coal” and says it works closely with the EU institutions on policy.
The Paris agreement was greeted with scenes of celebration and emotion among delegations, who struggled for 13 days to overcome divisions between developing and developed countries.
“You might be relieved that the agreement is weak. Don’t be. The words and legal basis no longer matter,” Ricketts told his members. “Fossil fuels are portrayed by the UN as public enemy number one.”
“’Keep it in the ground’ campaigns will morph into campaigns to ‘Put it back in the ground’, watched with growing incredulity,” he predicted.
‘Global government’
“COP21 has boosted egos and made many people feel that they are engaged in something momentous,” Ricketts said after saying the deal was based on a “UN lie” about the future potential of renewables. “If emotional energy could power the planet, then COP21 has provided us with enough to keep the lights on for the next hundred years.”
It was an achievement to get the agreement between 196 nations but, Ricketts said, it was the first step to a “global government”.
Euracoal has 34 members from 20 countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and Great Britain, include national coal associations, importers associations, research institutes and individual companies.
Mr Ricketts is right, I suspect. But he misses the main point. This is coal reaping what it sowed. Had it accepted global warming and looked to part of the solution via carbon pricing it would have been in a much better position. Instead its denial has pushed it to be climate enemy number one. Militarising that denial now, when the horse has bolted, will only make matters worse…
