Claims that climate change poses a “risk” to the coal industry are “ludicrous,” according to a leading U.S. economist, who has warned Australian members of Parliament not to allow overseas institutions to dictate the country’s development.
John Cochrane, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and author of “Asset Pricing,” a widely used textbook in universities, said even if oil wells, and coal mines began losing value due to a shift towards renewable energy development, the transition would be gradual over several decades and not immediate.
