Is coal dust blinding us?

Do Australians have coal dust into their eyes?

The question is worth asking, as the nation’s hopes for recovery rest heavily on hopes for increased coal sales to China.

But lower coal prices are already leaving a big hole in the nation’s export earnings.

The Treasurer, Wayne Swan, admitted that at the weekend, saying the value of Australia’s energy exports is expected to fall by 36.2 per cent this financial year.

The Federal government is making no secret of the fact that it is now looking to China to boost Australia’s growth  in the months ahead.

But things are already changing rapidly in China.

That country is already planning to generate 10 per cent of its energy from renewable resources, including solar power, by next year.

It expects, also, to lift that proportion to 15 per cent by 2020.

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has warned repeatedly that Australia could miss out on manby job opportunities, arising from technoligical change, if it hangs back on moves to combat global warming, in misguided efforts to protect the nation’s coal industry.

China’s move towards renewable energy will be swift, but not abrupt.

It will continue to import Australian coal for some years yet.

It’s move to renewables, though, has strong support, at the highest levels of the Chinese Communist party.

The country’s chief legislator, Wu Bangguo, made that plain, earlier this month, when he witnessed the signing of a deal that will set up the world’s biggest solar power station, in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia.

There was a lesson in that event, which the Senate would  be wise to accept.

It is due to debate the Federal government’s proposals for an emissions trading scheme very soon.

And, on present indications, the government’s legislation could well be defeated there.

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