FutureCoal Urges Australia to Focus on Innovation and Reliability in National Energy Policy
FutureCoal Chief Executive Michelle Manook has called on Australia to restore balance, honesty, and engineering-based reasoning to the national energy debate, warning that ideological positions are overshadowing practical solutions.
Speaking at the National Press Club of Australia on 18 November, with her address released publicly the following day, Manook stressed that the Paris Agreement does not mandate a phaseout of fossil fuels.
Instead, it is founded on principles of technology neutrality, sovereign choice, and diverse energy pathways, including fossil fuels with abatement, renewables, nuclear power, hydrogen, and emerging technologies.
“We need to return balance to the public debate on climate, exactly as the Paris Agreement intended,” she said. “We need to use every tool available, but never rely on just one.”
Manook highlighted electricity as “the first domino in the cost-of-living chain,” noting that rising household and business energy bills reflect the expenses associated with rebuilding the nation’s energy system, including storage, firming capacity, and major transmission upgrades.
She warned that Australia risks acting like “the reckless gambler” by assuming weather-dependent technologies will consistently meet industrial and household demand. “We have gambled on ideology, assuming luck will hold… and that consumers will absorb rising costs without protest,” she said.
Introducing the Sustainomics model, Manook argued that sustainability must integrate environmental, economic, and social priorities. Real progress, she said, requires reliability, competitiveness, and social trust—not slogans or purity tests.
She further emphasized coal’s essential role beyond power generation, including in steel, cement, fertilizers, chemicals, and advanced materials.
Modern low-emissions coal technologies operating in Asia, she noted, demonstrate innovations Australia risks overlooking.
“Progress is not measured by what we shut down, but by what we build,” she said. “We do not need a movement defined by refusal; we need one defined by improvement, innovation, and balance.”
Manook concluded by urging policymakers to adopt a pragmatic and inclusive approach ahead of COP30 and Australia’s upcoming G20 engagements. “Luck will not chart the future,” she said. “These global forums offer a chance to rethink our trajectory, refocus on real-world solutions, and align behind technologies that can deliver at scale.”
