Anyone following the debate could be forgiven for thinking that coal is almost solely responsible for global warming; that Australia is literally flooding the world with the stuff, and if we just stopped doing so we'd be well on the way to solving the problem.

 

The reality is somewhat different. More than three-quarters of the world's annual global greenhouse gas emissions are not caused by the use of coal. Coal is an important contributor, certainly, but oil, gas, waste, agriculture and deforestation all play major roles.

 

So what proportion of global emissions can be sheeted home to the use of Australia's coal exports?

 

Most people will be surprised to learn that the answer is just 1.3%, and universally agreed protocols say that these emissions are quite properly counted against the emission ledgers of countries that actually use the coal.

 

Much is made of the fact that Australia is the world's leading coal exporter, but just 4% of the world's coal production actually passes through Australian ports. This is because only a small proportion of the world's total coal production is actually traded.

 

Importing countries buy our coal because they either don't have any domestic reserves or they need the high quality steelmaking coal that Australia produces. More than half of our coal exports are used in steel mills, not power stations.

 

Japan, Korea and Taiwan are our biggest customers. China is the world's largest coal producer with annual production six times greater than ours. Just 3% of Australia's coal exports last year went to China, and its use in power stations generated less than half of 1% of greenhouse gas emissions from China's power sector.

 

Exporting just 4% of the world's annual coal production generated $A24 billion in export income for Australia last year. To put that in perspective, our coal exports were worth more than our wool, wheat, wine, copper, dairy, beef and gold exports combined. The industry directly and indirectly employs 130,000 people and their spending supports entire communities.

 

Taxes and royalties amount to billions of dollars which is returned to the wider community in the form of government services.

 

We could choose to forego these benefits, but it would not reduce either global coal consumption or greenhouse gas emissions. Our customers would simply shop elsewhere.

 

Indonesia, South Africa or Russia, to name a few, would be only too happy to take up the slack – and reap the economic benefits. By any measure, this would be spectacularly self-defeating.

 

No one is arguing that Australia should simply wash its hands of all responsibility for emissions generated outside its borders by its products. As a wealthy nation we are well placed to invest "above our weight" in the technologies the rest of the world will need to deploy to address the problem.

 

In terms of global impact, Australian investment in energy research and development will almost certainly prove to be our most important contribution.

 

In the case of coal, the key technology is carbon capture and storage.

 

Like the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change], which has delivered the most comprehensive report on the technology to date, we are confident that it can be an important part of the solution. If we didn't think so, industry would not be committing billions of dollars towards the global effort to bring the technology into commercial use.

 

We already have a national plan of action to make this happen, and it is being implemented. The plan complements rather than competes with renewable energy and energy efficiency.

 

The image of the coal mining industry being actively promoted by some – of an evil empire counting its money while the planet melts – is a mere cardboard cut-out. It does not reflect attitudes towards climate change of the people in the industry, or their sense of responsibility for finding solutions.

 

But the vilification is now causing distress to thousands of working families. It is already dividing communities and leading to a distorted public perception of the causes of climate change and its possible solutions.

 

History is littered with morally vain political movements that have used selective vilification as a political tool, invariably with tragic consequences. History also tells us that it is dangerous for resource-rich countries to withhold resources from those that are resource poor.

 

The scapegoating of a single industry over climate change, and calls for Australia to unilaterally withdraw its coal exports, reminds us that history is always in danger of repeating itself.

 

Mark O'Neill

Executive Director

Australian Coal Association