Uninsurable Coal

Coal becoming uninsurable reports the Guardian.  That is a natural and obvious effect of the increasing pressure to reduce carbon use, and will apply to other parts of the fossil fuel economy.  It also part of the explanation why I think the energy being put into the divest movement is misdirected.  Divestment should happen at a snowballing rate anyway as the increasing unacceptability of greenhouse gases becomes more and more obvious.  Smart money managers will work this out anyway and slide out of the market.

The same will apply to countries such as Australia and Poland that have economies that depend very strongly on fossil fuels.  The clever thing for their governments to do now would be to try to pivot their economies away from fossil fuel use rather than risk a sudden collapse and possible pariah status as the countries still producing climate change pollution when everyone else trying to get out.

As a final thought, I ccan't help that this kind of activism that relies on consumer pressure to achieve these changes rather than social action is itself misplaced, and a piece of misdirection by the vested interests of the carbon economy which would rather deal with individual consumer purchases than large scale government action.