From the tiniest nations of the Pacific to a giant like China, developing countries are demonstrating that reducing poverty and tackling climate change can, and indeed must, go hand in hand.

More and more countries are leapfrogging the polluting technologies of the past and harnessing the power of renewable energy. By doing this, they’re meeting the twin goals of increasing energy access and avoiding future emissions. From India’s plans to install a whopping 100GW of solar energy by 2022 (that’s more than twenty times Australia’s current capacity) to the Marshall Islands’ pledge to achieve zero emissions by mid century, if not earlier. Through international support and cooperation, developing countries are building the renewable energy economies of the future.

But while the energy revolution gathers pace, the Australian Government remains stuck down the deep, dark coal mine of the past and seemingly oblivious to these changing realities.

Captured by an ailing coal industry and urged on by conservative commentators, our government has delivered a series of bizarre and misleading pronouncements about the future of coal.

Frustrated? So are we! Which is why we’ve decided to set the record straight.

In this report we comprehensively debunk the Prime Minister’s now-infamous statement that “coal is good for humanity”. In this report we explore the devastating impacts of coal on communities and reveal how, contrary to industry claims, coal can do little to bring electricity to those still living without it, the majority of whom live in rural areas and beyond the reach of the conventional energy grid.