A report from the Worldwide Energy Monitor study shows that the worldwide coal industry may have to shed roughly 1 million jobs by 2050, even if no additional pledges to phase out fossil fuels are made, with China and India bearing the brunt of the losses.
According to The Punch, as they near the end of their lifespan and countries switch to greener low-carbon energy sources, hundreds of labor-intensive mines are anticipated to close in the next decades.
Global Energy Monitor, a think tank based in the United States, noted that “most of the mines likely to shut down have no planning underway to extend the life of those operations or to manage a transition to a post-coal economy.”
The project manager for GEM’s Global Coal Mine Tracker, Dorothy Mei, emphasized the importance of governments making preparations to protect employees during the energy transition.
She remarked, “The closure of coal mines is inevitable, but worker hardship and social unrest are not.”
GEM examined 4,300 active and proposed coal mine projects worldwide, totaling almost 2.7 million workers.
According to the analysis, more than 400,000 people are employed by mines that will stop operating before 2035.
GEM calculated that only 250,000 miners, or less than 10% of the existing employment, would be needed worldwide to phase out coal in order to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
According to GEM estimates, more over 1.5 million people are currently employed by China’s coal sector, which is the largest in the world.
More than 240,000 of the 1 million employment losses forecast worldwide by 2050 are expected to occur in the province of Shanxi alone.
China’s coal industry has already undergone numerous rounds of restructuring in recent years, and many mining communities in the north and northeast are still searching for new opportunities for economic development and job creation in the wake of pit closures.
Coal program director at GEM, Ryan Driskell Tate, said, “The treatment of workers in the coal industry as a whole has a notoriously bad reputation.”
He emphasized the significance of proactive planning for coal communities and workers to guarantee that businesses and government continue to be held accountable to those who have suffered the consequences for so long.
