BCC chief executive Gerhard Redelinghuys said the company saw enormous benefit in joining an alliance of progressive coal organisations across the whole value chain that were committed to responsible coal practices.
"It is evident that as an industry coal cannot remain the same," he said.
"It needs to evolve and innovate as it has for more than 150 years, and it can only do that as a coalition of conscientious, forward-focused participants."
BCC executive chairman Nick Jorss said as a global supplier of metallurgical coal, it was a vital time to advocate on behalf of coal's multiple attributes.
"Coal is an essential commodity for the production of steel, and the provision of low-cost energy, and a long-term driver of economic and social development," he said.
"BCC's high-quality coking coal production will supply the steel industry, which is vital both for continued global industrialisation and planned decarbonisation.
"The energy crisis we are seeing unfold in Europe and beyond confirms that coal is a secure and reliable commodity with a long and productive future ahead of it."
BCC joins a wave of companies joining the WCA, including African firms Thungela, Serit, and Menar.
WCA chief executive Michelle Manook said the confluence of global energy challenges to have emerged this year made it clear coal was vital in delivering energy reliability, affordability, and security, as well as being essential to steel production.
She said it was time to unify around the raft of abatement technologies and processes that could deliver a decarbonised, sustainable future.
"Coal is at a turning point in its evolution and is shedding its ‘old coal skin'," Manook said.
"The enrolment of a new wave of members over the past few months - in India, South Africa, Mongolia, and Australia - is evidence that a future coal industry is emerging.
"We have seized the opportunity to galvanise the whole coal value chain, recognising the need to differentiate coal and demonstrate how it is moving in a wholly new and innovative direction."
Manook said the fact that up to 99% of emissions could be abated through technologies and processes existing today should be reason enough to embrace coal as a commodity that could transform and decarbonise.
Similar technologies can be applied to the steel and cement sectors, both of which are major consumers of coking and thermal coal but ironically are also key material inputs to the clean energy transition in the manufacture of wind turbine masts, solar PV panels and frames, and hydroelectric stations.
"Coal can help drive decarbonisation as a critical raw material for the significant quantities of steel required for the renewables sector and as a low cost and reliable energy source for industry and consumers during the planned energy transition," Manook said.
