Climate goals at risk if coal-fired power plants remain open

Long-term climate change goals will be missed, and clean energy investment will stagnate, if Australia does not start forcing its dirty coal-fired power plants to close, new analysis has found.

Economic modelling commissioned by the Climate Institute also suggests that putting off closure until after 2030 would force the country into more-extreme measures to meet the longer-term goals of the Paris climate agreement.

That could include a hurried closure of more than 80 per cent of existing coal power generation in the five years following 2030, causing significant economic and social disruption, particularly in communities dominated by the industry such as the Latrobe Valley.

Read Tom Arup’s story in today’s Melbourne Age -“Shut coal plants or risk missing climate goals and hurting clean power, says Climate Institute.”