Everyone cutting coal use except for most of the world and most of the banks

The situation with our most hated energy asset

Australia’s big four banks are fighting over themselves to turn down the chance to profit from coal loans and tell the world. Months ago, Westpac went on a low-coal diet, declaring like a kind of vegan-keto-banker that they won’t consider a loan unless the coal mined has at least 6,300 kilocalories per kilogram. They will lose weight, or at least lighten up by a few shareholders. Our National Australia Bank announced they are waiting for the carbon capture fairy to conquer some laws of chemistry and economics. While the small-fish Australian banks advertise their doogooder star status, financial institutions in Canada are putting $2.9 billion towards building new coal plants overseas. And in the last three years, Chinese banks have put $630 billion dollars into coal, (but even they don’t want to put money into Adani coal in Australia, the political environment is so bad.)

After being flat for a few years, in a new report, the IEA predicts coal use will grow again ’til 2022, at least in a subdued way. This largely appears to be singlehandedly due to Narenda Modi, who announced in August that the rest of India should […]