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Opinion: In The War On Coal, Coal Is A weapon Of Climate Destruction

Opinion: In The War On Coal, Coal Is A weapon Of Climate Destruction

From CommunistPartyofAustralia. Story by Rob Gowland.

Globally, there is a growing move away from fossil fuels even as the coal, oil, and gas industries do everything in their power to retain the destructive – yet profitable – status quo.

The most developed nations are burning coal at unsustainable rates and driving planetary destruction on a massive scale, according to a new Oxfam report.

Oxfam is a U.K.-based international confederation of 17 organizations working in about 94 countries to find solutions to poverty and what it considers injustice around the world.

Coal is the world’s largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, the report says. Its continued use by developed nations is “pushing off investments in the solutions necessary to right humanity’s course in the coming years and decade.”

According to the report’s summary, each existing or new coal power station in the world should be seen “as a weapon of climate destruction – fueling ruinous weather patterns, devastating harvests, driving food price rises and ultimately leaving more people facing hunger. With these climate impacts falling disproportionately on the most vulnerable and least food-secure people, the burning of coal is further exacerbating inequality.”

Oxfam says that the financial costs associated with the damage done by the ongoing mining and burning of coal by the G7 countries (the U.S., the U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan) far outweigh the aid and assistance money they spend on rural development or agriculture across the African continent.

Read more at CommunistPartyofAustralia.