Australian mining industry launches controversial ad campaign promoting coal
Australia’s mining industry has come under severe criticism from environmentalists who have labelled its new ad campaign promoting coal’s environmentally friendly capabilities and job creation as “desperate” and “ludicrous”.
The major advertising campaign from the Minerals Council of Australia hails the fossil fuel’s ability to “create light and jobs” while claiming that new technology will drastically slash its emissions.
Titled, Little Black Rock, the campaign will be launched over TV, online, radio and newspaper and according to the Minerals Council has been created to stimulate an “informative and rational discussion” about coal.
The captivating video ad features a pan of what looks like another planet but is actually an extreme close-up of a lump of coal. A voice over then explains the mineral can “provide endless possibilities” and delivers $40bn to Australia’s economy each year. It goes on to state coal “can now reduce its emissions by up to 40 per cent” before closing with “it’s coal. Isn’t it amazing what this little black rock can do?”
Environmental groups have been extremely critical of the advertising approach, labelling it as a “ludicrous” and “desperate” attempt to paint coal in a positive light at a time when renewable energy costs are falling and a struggling global push to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Kelly O’Shanassy, chief executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation condemned the Minerals Council and our government for its unethical views and rebranded the ad’s tagline to “coal is a dangerous little black rock”. She added that she was glad that the Minerals Council had “woken up to the 18th century potential of coal” saying that she could not “wait until they see the 21st century potential of renewable energy”.
A spokesman for the Minerals Council said the ads were designed to tackle a “few misconceptions” about the industry and were aimed at the general public but it also wanted “politicians to take notice of it.”
The campaign claims that low-emission coal-fired power plants and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is “now a reality” and are slashing emissions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said the technology must apply to all remaining coal power worldwide by 2100.
Australian PM, Tony Abbott, trumpeted coal as the foundation of Australia’s energy needs and claimed that 15,000 direct and indirect jobs were dependent on it. Last year however, he cut almost half a billion dollars from research into carbon capture and storage.
Australia doesn’t yet have a single CCS-enabled plant yet, Canada has the only operational one in the world. The technology is being developed in Australia however it is not expected to arrive until some point in the 2020s.
Australia is heavily dependent on coal with around 76 per cent of the country's electricity being supplied by the fossil fuel. A major analysis of known global coal reserves by University College London in January stated that 82 per cent of the remaining coal must remain unburned if the world was to avoid catastrophic climate changes.
The ad for the campaign can be viewed in fill above.