“The big winners from a moratorium are incumbent coal miners.” 

Full audio of Richard Denniss' address to the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics.

Some highlights include:

2.22 mins - "I'm an economist. I'm pre-programmed to believe that if you could make money out doing something, you'd do it...I'm pre-programmed to think that the coal industry itself should be the most enthusiastic proponents of a moratorium on new coal mines"

7:05 mins - "If you think Saudi Arabia has some price setting power in oil, then economically Australia has more price setting power in coal." 

8.07 mins - "The economic expert engaged by Adani said, under oath in court, that the construction of this coal mine would have no impact on price - it would not push the price of coal down, because when it opened - mines somewhere else in the world would shut down that day."

13:49 mins - "To put it simply, if the world wants to tackle climate change and Australia wants to double its coal exports, someone is going to lose."

20:52 mins - “The fear that we might tackle climate change is driving rational owners of coal to dig it up and sell it now...These are not stupid people.” 

21:15 mins - "If you own a billion tonnes of coal in 50 years - good on you, how's your rock collection?"

25:00 mins - "Coal expansions hurt incumbents and those invested in them. Companies aren't allowed to call for help. What would happen if the coal mining industry went public and said 'how about we colluded to restrict supply and drive the price up? That's called a cartel...so I'm here to help them."

29:56 mins - "You can't start going forwards until you stop going backwards, and Australia, again, wants to build coal mines the size of London"