Yes, aren't Australia's major banks short-sighted as they avoid...

Yes, aren't Australia's major banks short-sighted as they avoid financing thermal coal. Just missing out on profitable business for no reason!

Peta Credlin in 'Sunday Herald Sun' of 26 September 2021 has some wise words:

While green execs strike a pose China burns coal


Coal-fired power is said to be on the way out here in Australia, where the media mostly trumpeted this week China’s announcement that it would stop funding other countries’ coal plants, but that’s certainly not the case in China itself, which is planning to build 43 new coal-fired power stations and 18 new coal-dependent furnaces.

Climate hypocrisy is exactly what we should expect from the world’s biggest emitter, in the runup to the Glasgow climate summit.

The Chinese know they can count on climate credulity from the gullible West and are hoping to use cosmetic concessions on climate to extract strategic gains over places like Taiwan.

Why are we weakening ourselves economically when our giant strategic challenger has no such climate scruples? It doesn’t matter how much countries like Australia reduce our emissions. If China won’t do likewise, our power prices go up and our heavy industries close but the planet is no better off.

Last week, increasingly renewable-energy-dependent Britain reportedly faced industry shutdowns because of soaring gas prices due to a largely windless September. Of course, if we did want to reduce emissions quickly, we’d embrace nuclear power; and if not that, we’d replace existing coal-fired power stations with the latest versions that would cut power sector emissions by up to 40 per cent.

Far from abandoning coal here, because Australian coal is the world’s cleanest, the more we produce and export, the better. As things stand, the anti-coal activism from boardrooms down is more about striking a pose than making a difference.