Dear coal, your days are numbered

In a bold move, seven leading climate scientists have written an open letter to Australian coal-fired power stations, making it clear that the coal industry is directly responsible for causing climate change impacts around the world.

Read the scientists' letter (PDF, 141kb)

'Our intention is to ensure the coal industry is fully accountable for their pollution and the damage it causes,' explains David Karoly, a leading author from the Nobel Prize-winning UN International Panel on Climate Change.

The scientists’ letter comes a week after Dr James Risby, a major player in the government’s own scientific body, CSIRO, told a formal Senate inquiry that we are playing 'Russian roulette with the climate system, with most of the chambers loaded' and that coal-fired power stations must be phased out over the next 20 years.

Read the Greenpeace Energy [R]evolution report (PDF, 1.4mb)

Watch the video of latest climate science

Says Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner, Julien Vincent, 'The latest letter is part of a growing consensus that coal is not compatible with serious action to cut greenhouse pollution. The owners of coal-fired power stations now have nowhere to hide.

'We already know that coal is the single biggest cause of greenhouse pollution but the coal industry can now be held to account for the impacts of their emissions.

'That means that Australia’s coal-fired power stations could be found directly responsible for hundreds of thousands of people displaced. Greenpeace is going to look into the legal ramifications of this but that would be one mammoth class action,' he adds.