We need to get off the black stuff. Quick.

With humanity moving ever closer to failing to avert more than two degrees of global warming, there is one industry that will be key to averting a disaster. Coal.

The energy and carbon dense rock has played a major part in the industrialisation of billions of people, with the UK’s industrial revolution powered by coal, with Britain’s coal mining industry and the establishment of deep mines helping to drive the nation’s ascent.

However times have changed and coal is dirty as well as being one of the largest contributors to the greenhouse gases driving climate change.

Today the UK is not even in the top 10 global coal producers. It is China – at close to 50% of global coal production – that is the biggest player in the coal market, however China is simultaneously leading the push towards solar and scaling down the construction of new gas power coal plants.

While the USA, Australia and India all have comparatively large coal industries, it is the direction of China that is most critical for humanity.

For while China is the world’s biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions it is also leading the way to a greener future, investing incredible sums in solar and wind at a time when the USA, UK and Australia have been lukewarm about such technologies.