Governments must proactively prepare workers and communities as part of a ‘just transition’ in response to an inevitable phase out of coal mines and power stations, leading energy and climate policy experts have warned.

The international group of researchers has argued that a global phase out of coal, necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, will require governments to engage with coal-reliant communities and workers, to ensure there is a “fair” closure of the fossil fuel industries.

The new research has been published in the journal Nature Climate Change, and has been authored by academics from the Australian National University working in partnership with researchers from the United Kingdom, Germany, India and the United States.

The Australian National University’s professor Frank Jotzo said that the global phase out of coal would have significant consequences for Australia, and it was important that governments worked to avoid the same mistakes made in response to earlier power station closures.

Read the full article on the Renew Economy website, featuring commentary by Prof Frank Jotzo and Dr Rebecca Colvin