Nearly half a million coal miners face unemployment globally by 2035 due to mine closures and a market shift towards cheaper wind and solar power generation, with China and India likely to be hit hardest, reports South China Morning Post (SCMP), citing a report by US-based non-profit Global Energy Monitor. The report looks into the employment of nearly 2.7 million coal miners working at 4,300 active and proposed coal mines and projects around the world that are together responsible for more than 90% of global coal production.

By 2050, about 1 million coal mine jobs, or 37% of the existing workforce at operating mines, will no longer exist given the coal industry’s foreseeable closures, even without host countries’ climate pledges or policies to phase out coal, the report said.

The report raises the question of whether the coal and other energy-intensive industries will manage the job transfer and re-skilling needed to meet expectations of a ‘just transition’, which refers to practices that help with mitigating and adapting to climate change without sacrificing key stakeholders’ interests.