Over the last 2 years, CRE has seen several insurance participants promoting and lobbying for a captive or mutual solution for the coal sector to help reduce costs and ease coverage acceptance.
So what are these silver bullets for the coal industry and how could they work?
Now we are through the full Financial Year for 2022, we lift our eyes to the year ahead having generally overcome a lot of market challenges in the last couple of years; now to only face even more.
The recent report ‘Global trends in climate litigation: 2021 snapshot’ by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science found that climate change litigation cases have been significantly increasing during the past six years.
The Queensland Government established the Board of Inquiry (Board) in May 2020 after a serious accident at the Grosvenor mine, and a series of other high potential incidents (HPIs) at underground mines in the State between 1 July 2019 and 5 May 2020.
The Board was tasked with examining methane exceedance HPIs at Grosvenor, Grasstree, Moranbah North, and Oaky North underground coal mines.
As part of its work, the Board also considered the impact of labour hire in the mining industry and the perception that labour hire workers were unwilling to speak up about safety issues.
I will preface by saying from the outset that I am not suggesting that the mining of coal is good for the environment in any way, shape, or form.
However, I am categorically certain that it is necessary by virtue of how our civilisation has evolved and will continue to be relevant for decades to come in our global energy mix; like many crutches upon which people become reliant, kicking it out from under us will hurt more than it helps.
I am also strongly of the view that if mined and used responsibly, the effects of coal on our environment can be managed. Further, with continued investment and focus on efficiencies and technology like carbon capture and storage (CCS) in heavy use environments, it can be materially reduced while we all work toward balancing our energy creation sources.