{"id":22463,"date":"2018-06-25T06:39:43","date_gmt":"2018-06-24T20:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=22463"},"modified":"2018-06-25T06:45:44","modified_gmt":"2018-06-24T20:15:44","slug":"monash-forum-coal-campaign-mb0638","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/monash-forum-coal-campaign-mb0638\/","title":{"rendered":"Monash Forum Releases First Coal “Fact Sheet”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Coal

Image: stevepb<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

The Monash Forum, a collective of pro-coal Liberal\/National MPs, published its first fact sheet in defence of the little black rock late last week. It was ..interesting.<\/p>\n

Early last week we mentioned the Monash Forum<\/a> was about to launch a hearts and minds campaign to lift the image of coal power. It has a big job ahead of it as the recently published Lowy Institute Poll 2018 found 84% of Australians surveyed believe the Australian Government should focus on renewables. In terms of Liberal-National Party supporters, 72%<\/a> viewed a renewable energy focus more favourably than one on coal and gas.<\/p>\n

The promised campaign launched with a “fact sheet” detailing the number of new coal power stations planned and under construction around the world. You can view the Monash Forum’s Coal Factsheet 1 here<\/a> (PDF).<\/p>\n

It tallies a total of 467 new “power stations” (which should be noted as “units” as a single power station may be comprised of more than one generating unit) under construction in 35 nations and 903 in planning in 50 countries.<\/p>\n

The numbers were based on data as at January 2018 gleaned from Coal Swarm’s Global Coal Plant Tracker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The point of the coal fact sheet appears to have been a case of “See! Coal’s not dead! Look what others are doing – and Australia is being left behind!” As a teen, my parents were constantly warning me to not participate in everything my peers were up to out of concern for my health and safety. It was sage advice that I unfortunately didn’t listen to.<\/p>\n

Far from being a good thing, hundreds of plants under construction is bad news for human health and the environment generally. That includes so-called High Efficiency, Low Emissions (HELE) coal power<\/a>, which is also rather pricey.<\/p>\n

However, aside from the station vs. unit issue, the numbers on Coal Fact Sheet 1 can’t be taken at face value. The Monash Forum should have dug a bit deeper on the Coal Swarm site.<\/p>\n

In March, Coal Swarm published a report titled: “Boom and Bust 2018: Tracking The Global Coal Plant Pipeline<\/a>” (PDF).<\/p>\n

It says:<\/p>\n