Frydenberg's 'moral case' for coal at odds with World Bank, UN and agencies

Australian resources minister says coal will help the world's energy-poor, but they are mostly out of reach of the expensive grid structures coal relies on

Australian energy minister Josh Frydenberg's "strong moral case" for coal is at odds with the policies and research of the World Bank, the UN and the world's most austere energy agencies and has been called "deranged", "oxymoronic" and "wilfully deceptive" by observers.

In making the case for the government's reapproval of the Carmichael coalmine, Frydenberg invoked the lung-clogging pollution produced by the rudimentary wood, coal, petrol and dung-fired cooking stoves commonly used in the developing world. Australian coal, he said, offered salvation to some of the 2.6 billion people who currently live without access to safe cooking facilities.