The coal industry is expected to shed more than four lakh mining jobs, equivalent to nearly 100 workers per day, by 2035, even without climate pledges or policies to phase out coal, with China and India likely to be the hardest hit, according to a new report.
The primary reason will be the market shift toward cheaper wind and solar power generation and a lack of planning to manage a transition to a post-coal economy, said the report compiled by Global Energy Monitor, a US-based NGO that analyses the evolving international energy landscape.
The report suggests that 9,90,200 coal-mining jobs will cease to exist at operating mines given the foreseeable closures of coal facilities, potentially laying off more than one-third (37 per cent) of the existing workforce.
China and India are expected to be the hardest hit. China's Shanxi province would witness the largest number of job losses globally -- 2,41,900 by 2050 -- while Coal India is the producer facing the largest potential job cuts of 73,800 by the mid-century.
The report highlights that data shows 4,300 active and proposed coal mines and projects around the world are cumulatively responsible for more than 90 per cent of global coal production.
Climate commitments to phase out coal power generation could accelerate ongoing trends in coal-mining job losses, even as employment in renewable energy and construction now exceeds 50 per cent of total energy employment.
Coal-mining jobs play a significant role in remote coal regions, acting as anchors of economic activity and sustaining ancillary workforces and employment in local consumer and information economies.
The vast majority of these workers are in Asia, with 22 lakh jobs in the region, and China and India are expected to bear the brunt of the coal-mine closures.
China has more than 15 lakh coal miners who produce over 85 per cent of its coal, accounting for half of the world's output. Meanwhile, the northern provinces of Shanxi, Henan and Inner Mongolia mine more than a quarter of the world's coal and employ 32 per cent of the global mining workforce, approximately 8,70,400 people.
