I am going to disappoint those who are anticipating that I will make detailed projections on the energy mix we will use in fifty years and the exotic technologies needed to reach that goal. I might even relieve those fearing a one-eyed coal promotional. Instead, I’m going to take a different approach and get philosophical about the big issues and the games we play in the energy industry and ask you, as energy professionals, to be introspective.
Rio Tinto is one of the world’s leading mining and minerals processing companies. It is a major coal producer and exporter with coal operations in Australia, Indonesia and the USA. As my presentation will focus on sustainable development, I should mention that Rio Tinto has accepted the principles of sustainable development and has joined with other leading mining companies in the Global Mining Initiative, which is a major global program to improve the sustainable development performance of the minerals industry. Rio Tinto is now working to develop programs that incorporate sustainable development principles into the way it operates.
In this presentation I will touch on the following topics:
i) Sustainable development,
ii) Attitudes and the games we play,
iii) Coal and sustainable development,
iv) Current Australian initiatives,
v) Thoughts on the energy mix in 2050,
vi) Examining core beliefs.
My main point will be that many attitudes are not conducive to ensuring a secure, economic and environmentally acceptable energy system in the coming decades. I will contend that a diversified energy economy will require the continuing use of coal in environmentally acceptable ways. In other words, change on many fronts is necessary if we are to escape the various dead-end mind-sets that are preventing sensible progress towards diversified energy systems compatible with sustainable development in all of its economic, social and environmental dimensions.