The Greens are calling for the phase-out of coal mining over the next ten years.

The party is introducing a bill to limit mining of coal used in power stations to 1 billion tonnes for the coming decade – about half as much as Australia is on track to produce.

The plan is to funnel money raised by companies bidding for the last coal mining rights to support communities’ transition from coal.

The proposal was launched in NSW over the weekend, where already one in five coal mining jobs have disappeared since employment peaked four years ago.

“Coal will end in Newcastle, it’s about whether we have a plan,” Greens’ mining spokesperson Jeremy Buckingham said. 

“It is a scientific fact that we cannot continue to burn coal and protect the climate.

“We can have a planned transition, or we can have a chaotic collapse in a decade or so which will leave communities like Singleton and Muswellbrook in the lurch.”

NSW Minerals Council chief executive officer Stephen Galilee said plan would mean lights out for the state.

“It’s a recipe for economic chaos that would cost thousands of jobs and send NSW into a deep recession if not a depression,” Galilee said in a statement to industry press Australian Mining.

“Coal is our state’s most valuable export so it’s great for the NSW economy that demand for our coal continues to be strong and is growing steadily across our main export markets.”

NSW Energy Minister Don Harwin said the policy would “have a devastating impact on jobs in the Hunter, not to mention the threat to the state’s economy”.