Former UN climate chief says world doesn't need Australia's 'toxic' coal

Former United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres has repudiated Australian mining giant BHP for its refusal to stop mining coal, suggesting the decision is uneconomic and poor nations do not need the “toxic” and “expensive” fossil fuel.

BHP Billiton chief executive Andrew Mackenzie says the
 company will continue to mine coal, despite climate change concerns.

BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie said this week the company is “not going to move away from coal mining”.

His position comes despite a warning last month by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that coal must be virtually phased out by 2050 if the world is to keep global warming below the 1.5 degree threshold, beyond which the effects of climate change would be catastrophic and, in many cases, irreversible.

Addressing shareholders on Thursday, Mr Mackenzie said BHP had a moral obligation to combat climate change, but the developing world needed coal to lift citizens out of poverty.

Read the story from The Age by Nicole Hasham - “Former UN climate chief says world doesn't need Australia's 'toxic' coal.”

(What weird reasoning from Andrew McKenzie - mine coal to ensure it helps lift people out of poverty and then plunge them straight back into an even worse circumstance as the mined, and used coal worsens climate change and subjects the now “poverty-free” people to life-threatening circumstances humans have never before experienced and so have no understanding of how to survive in such conditions. Obviously, Mr McKenzie is concerned more about profit than he is about people - Robert McLean)