Australia must leave almost all its coal in the ground, as well as a good chunk of its oil and gas, if the world is to have an even chance of keeping global warming to 1.5C.

• The Paris Climate Agreement's goal is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels
• About 60 per cent of oil and gas and 90 per cent of coal reserves must be "unextractable" for a 50 per cent chance of meeting that target, researchers say
• This decline in fossil fuels required globally by 2050 implies many regions face peak production now or during the next decade

That's according to calculations published in Nature today, which found the lion's share of fossil fuel reserves worldwide must remain untapped if we're to stay at the lower end of the target set in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

Coal requires the biggest drop in production overall — around 90 per cent worldwide by 2050, compared to 60 per cent for oil and gas, according to Dan Welsby, a researcher at University College London's Institute of Sustainable Resources and co-author of the study.

"For coal, all regions need to have already reached peak production."

And Australia is no exception, Mr Welsby added.

"For some … countries in the Pacific region, for example Australia, they have unextractable coal reserves of 95 per cent."

"Unextractable" reserves are those that must be left in the ground to limit warming.

The study comes days after federal Resources and Water Minister Keith Pitt said Australia has no plans to stop mining and exporting coal "well beyond 2030".

"Coal consumption throughout Asia is forecast by the International Energy Agency to grow over the next decade to meet the energy demands of countries like China, India and South Korea," Mr Pitt said in a statement on Monday.

"Australia has an important role to play in meeting that demand."

About 80 per cent of the world's energy needs are supplied by burning fossil fuels, with coal releasing more carbon dioxide per unit of energy than oil or gas.

Keeping fossil fuels in the ground has been a mantra in climate change circles for years.

For instance, then-United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres said in a 2013 speech that most of the world's coal reserves should not be extracted.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2021-09-09/climate-change-global-warming-coal-gas-oil-extraction-emissions/100438206

With Scomo in charge, Australia will burn the house down much faster... Though one could hope that the new "policy" at News Corp might influence Scomo's coal and fossil fuel policies... We shall see... Note that even with "zero emissions by 2050", the planet will still keep warming up more than 3 degrees Celsius by 2100 and by more beyond this date... But further damage beyond imaginings will be mitigated by "zero emissions by 2050" (keep dreaming — this won't happen)...

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