this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2023
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[–] ChapolinColoradoNZ@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Another interesting fact is that coal and natural gas production makes up about a third of all the money coming into the Australian economy, yet it wants to claim being "net zero" by 2050. I say no way José!

[–] Nath@aussie.zone 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Given that mining (all mining) has always made up less than 10% of Australia's GDP, how are you coming up with that 'about a third' figure?

[–] w2qw@aussie.zone 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] Nath@aussie.zone 3 points 1 year ago

Ahh that makes a bit more sense, but still even using those figures, coal is 15% of exports and gas 7.7%. Less than a quarter combined, nowhere near a third.

We absolutely need to wean our economy off coal. I believe we can do it well before 2050.

[–] vividspecter@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

There won't be anyone to sell those resources to well before 2050, so we have no choice but to transition. Thankfully, we have an absurd amount of renewable resources and iron ore and rare earth minerals will still be needed. And we can do a lot of "value added" type work by not just exporting raw materials but at least building part of the final products.

Are you seriously discarding all those underdeveloped and developing countries which will not "hit the target" by 2050? If countries with millions of people they can't even feed properly need coal or gas to simply keep the lights on, there will be a market and governments will look the other way while exporting hydrocarbons. It is what it is. Also, cobalt mining, look it up. Tragic stuff.