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In Russia, Coal Is Still King. And The Government Wants Even More. – by Mike Eckel (Radio Free Europe – December 2, 2021)

https://www.rferl.org/

The methane built up silently, first in the ceilings of the Russian coal shaft, then expanding downward, possibly undetected, until an errant spark ignited the cloud, setting off an explosion. Dozens of people — both miners and rescuers — were killed.

No, this wasn’t the tragedy that hit the Listvyazhnaya mine in Russia’s famed Kuzbass coal basin last week. This was another disaster that struck 11 years ago at another mine, Raspadskaya, about a three-hour drive to the southeast, also in the Kuzbass.

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OPINION: Coal went from investor pariah to luvvie in one year. How did that happen as the planet warms up? – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – December 3, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A year ago, the world’s biggest resources companies were apparent slaves to the ESG movement. Many of them were open to ejecting their dirtiest fossil fuels from their portfolios to attract the cherished “green” premium offered by investors who wanted to own more climate-friendly companies.

Today, these very same companies are resisting the pressure to ditch their fossil fuels in the name of making their environmental, social and governance credentials more attractive – and they are getting away it.

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Coal’s last boom? World’s dirtiest fuel isn’t being put out of business anytime soon – by Bianca Bharti (Financial Post – November 30, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

At the end of the climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, Alok Sharma, president of the United Nations’ 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26), fought tears as he announced that 197 countries had only been able to agree to “phasing down” the use of coal, rather than “phasing out” one of the main sources of global warming.

“May I say to all delegates I apologize for the way this process has unfolded and I am deeply sorry,” Sharma, a minister in British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet, said at the culmination of the two-week summit on Nov. 13.

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Russia mourns 51 killed in mining disaster, police make arrests – by Tom Balmforth (Reuters – November 26, 2021)

https://news.trust.org/

MOSCOW, Nov 26 (Reuters) – Police in Siberia arrested two safety inspectors suspected of criminal negligence on Friday as Russia’s coal mining heartland mourned the deaths of 51 people in one of its worst mine disasters since Soviet times.

Regional governor Sergei Tsivilyov said a methane explosion was the likely cause of Thursday’s accident at the mine near the town of Belovo. The dead included five rescuers sent to bring out dozens of men stuck deep underground, he said.

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Coal phase-out may take longer than countries are willing to admit – report – by Staff (Mining.com – November 23, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

A new report by Wood Mackenzie states that despite countries agreeing to phase down coal at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, thermal coal demand is expected to rise until the mid-2020s.

“Under our base case Energy Transition Outlook (ETO), which is aligned to a 2.7°C warming TO scenario, demand for thermal coal will peak in 2025 at just over 7 billion tonnes, falling by just 5% to 6.7 billion tonnes in 2030,” Julian Kettle, who is senior vice president and vice-chair of metals and mining at WoodMac, wrote in the report.

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Biden’s bad green policy supply chain – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – November 20, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

With all the policy angst about global supply chain crises that threaten various physical aspects of the international economy, from the movement of goods through vital ports to rising inflation to production bottlenecks, there’s another kind of supply chain crisis in the works.

That’s the supply of bad ideas that are streaming like flood waters into economic policy from the climate policy ocean. A prime demonstration of the ideological pileup is the chain-link of ideas driving U.S. President Joe Biden’s plans for the U.S. auto industry.

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Alberta Rockies coal mining panel granted 6-week extension to deliver its report (Canadian Press/CBC News Calgary – November 10, 2021)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary

Extension to Dec. 31 granted due to ‘extraordinary volume, breadth and depth’ of input from Albertans

A panel gathering public input on coal mining in the Alberta Rockies has been given another six weeks to hand in its report.

“Due to the extraordinary volume, breadth and depth of the input provided by Albertans, the coal policy committee requested an extension to the deadline for both their engagement and final reports,” said a statement by provincial Energy Minister Sonya Savage.

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Unfettered climate alarmism on full display at COP26 – by Conrad Black (National Post – November 14, 2021)

https://nationalpost.com/

A week after the Glasgow climate conference opened, 100,000 demonstrators marched to denounce the delegates as frauds who would not impose the revolution required in fossil fuel elimination to save the planet. The inevitable Swedish teenage climate protester Greta Thunberg called it, “Two weeks of business as usual: blah, blah, blah.”

Fortunately, she is correct: the Glasgow commitments are not binding and no one will pay any attention to them. Our government leaders are sufficiently intelligent to know that drastic reductions of carbon emissions are not, in fact, desirable, but they are not sufficiently courageous to tell the truth to the vast, brain-washed, brain-dead number of deluded climate alarmists who have bought into the bunk that the end is nigh.

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OPINION: Canada has nearly kicked its coal addiction. The rest of the world? Not so much – by Editorial Board (Globe and Mail – November 9, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The “end of coal is in sight,” declared a press release last week from the United Kingdom, host of the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow. That statement is true in some places, such as Canada – but elsewhere, seeing the end of coal requires magic binoculars that can peer decades into the future.

Ahead of Glasgow, there had been hopes of making momentous gains against the oldest and dirtiest of fossil fuels. But without agreement from China, India and the United States, coal won’t be banished to the slag heap of history any time soon.

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Investors pushed mining giants to quit coal. Now it’s backfiring – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – November 9, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

It was supposed to be a big win for climate activists: another of the world’s most powerful mining companies had caved to investor demands that it stop digging up coal.

Instead, Anglo American Plc’s strategy reversal has become a case study for unintended consequences. Its exit has transformed mines that were scheduled for eventual closure into the engine room for a growth-hungry coal business.

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China’s coal imports in October nearly doubled from a year ago – by Evelyn Cheng (CNBC.com – November 7, 2021)

https://www.cnbc.com/

BEIJING — China imported nearly twice as much coal in October as it did a year ago, despite signs the country’s power shortage is easing, according to customs data released Sunday. Monthly purchases of coal reached 26.9 million tons in October, up 96.2% from a year ago, according to data accessed through Wind Information.

However, that was down 18.2% from 32.9 million tons in September. Chinese authorities have rushed to address a coal shortage in the country since late September, after many factories were forced to cut production. By mid-October, the number of Chinese provinces with significant power shortages fell to two, down from 18 at the start of the month, according to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

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Biggest polluters missing from COP26 pledge to phase out coal – by Adam Radwanski (Globe and Mail – November 5, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A new global pact to transition away from coal power, announced on Thursday at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, has been compromised by the refusal of the world’s biggest emitters to sign on.

The host British government has made it a primary goal of the United Nations conference to “consign to history” the fuel currently responsible for about 30 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions, and succeeded in getting some heretofore coal-friendly or coal-reliant countries – such as Indonesia, Poland, South Korea and Vietnam – to be among more than 40 nations joining the agreement.

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Canada to ban thermal coal exports by 2030 – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – November 2, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada will stop exporting thermal coal by 2030 at the latest as part of the country’s plans to support the global phase-out of the fossil fuel in favour of cleaner alternatives.

The ban would follow action already taken, including speeding out the transition from coal-fired electricity to gas and renewables, as well as putting in place investments of more than $185 million to support coal workers and their communities.

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Canada to ban thermal coal exports by 2030 – by Mariaan Webb (MiningWeekly.com – November 2, 2021)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Canada has committed to stop thermal coal exports by no later than 2030, as part of its efforts to support a global phase-out of thermal coal in the fight against climate change, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday.

The ban would follow action already taken, including accelerating the phasing out of conventional coal-fired electricity in the country by 2030 and putting in place investments of more than $185-million to support coal workers and their communities through the transition to cleaner energy.

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BHP’s Plan to Exit Thermal Coal Is in Doubt – by Thomas Biesheuvel, Harry Brumpton and James Thornhill (Bloomberg News – November 1, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — BHP Group’s exit from thermal coal is looking less certain as record prices and shifting investor attitudes put the brakes on its planned retreat from the dirtiest fuel, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company has been planning its thermal coal exit for at least two years — BHP has already sold a stake in the Cerrejon thermal coal mine in Colombia and is nearing a deal to sell some Australian coking coal mines.

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