Old King Coal has benefited from a run of good luck these past few years. First came the fabulous boom years of the first decade of this century. The Copenhagen climate talks loomed like a black cloud over the sector for a while, but dissipated without so much as a thunderclap. The fiscal crisis struck only the developed world, leaving coal’s growth markets in the developing world untouched. Even the shock of the US shale gas boom, which rendered coal uncompetitive in the US, was softened by the resurgence of coal markets in Europe due to the collapsing carbon price. But there are indications that coal’s luck may be changing, and this time it could be terminal.
See http://about.bnef.com/blog/caldecott-will-old-king-coal-continue-to-be-a-merry-old-soul/.