Exporting Coal, Exporting Emissions

An Australian coal mining company announced over the weekend that it has reached an agreement to sell USD 60 billion dollars worth of coal to a Chinese utility over the next 20 years.

Many Aussies - politicians included - are excited about the money that will be flowing into their country.

Others - immediately and prominently, Australia's Green Party - are concerned about the coal smoke that will be flowing out of Chinese power plant smokestacks. They think that Australia should take responsibility for its exports.

Senator Bob Brown, for example, points out that many Australians - politicians included - are in favor of a a greenhouse gas cap and trade system, or, in the language of Australian politics, a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. Those Australians, he says, should pay attention to the damage that Australian coal has on the world, even once it has been shipped overseas.

"In one signed contract this single coal export deal with China will produce more greenhouse gases into our atmosphere... than the government's CPRS scheme... They are saying we have to act on climate change in this country... but we don't have to act on it. It's going to come out of chimneys in China, so why should we worry?"

While the Senator's fundamental logic makes sense, support for the CPRS and other environmental legislation has been waning over the past year, and it will be a challenge for the Greens to get their message out and stir up public outcry against the big coal deal.