A New South Wales (NSW) committee has urged the government to swiftly address key factors hampering the state’s safe shift from coal to renewable energy generation. The report (pdf) by the Committee on Environment and Planning listed 21 total recommendations to aid in the transition, including offering help to communities heavily dependent on coal. “The lack of forward planning and economic diversification in coal dependent communities from state and federal governments has delayed energy transition,” said committee chair Alex Greenwich. As of December 31, 2020, almost 21,000 Australia had been employed at NSW’s 38 operating coal mines, and in 2020 the state’s coal exports exceeded $18 billion—or 40 percent. The report outlined the importance of a “just transition”—the ability to pivot away from coal carefully, exemplified by Germany’s Ruhr Valley, which Greenwich highlighted as being considered the “gold standard” for coal mining and power generation closures. The committee recommended the …