FutureCoal chief executive Michelle Manook has urged Australia to restore balance, honesty and engineering-based decision-making to its energy debate during a recent Australia National Press Club discussion when she warned that ideology has overtaken practical policy.
At her recent November address, Manook emphasised that the Paris Agreement never mandated a fossil-fuel phaseout. She reaffirmed that it was built on technology neutrality, sovereign choice and multiple pathways, including fossil fuels with abatement, renewables, nuclear, hydrogen and emerging technologies.
“We need to return balance to the public debate on climate, exactly as the Paris Agreement intended. We need to use every tool available but never rely on one. Our goal is not to narrow the conversation. It’s to broaden it,” she said.
She also highlighted electricity as “the first domino in the cost-of-living chain,” noting that rising bills reflect the cost of rebuilding the entire system, including firming, storage and major new transmission investment. Additionally, the executive warned that Australia risks behaving like “the reckless gambler” despite its world-class baseload resources.
“We have gambled on ideology, on the assumption that luck will hold, that weather-dependent systems will meet industrial demand, and that consumers will absorb rising costs without protest,” Manook stressed.
Call for sustainomics and a level playing field
Introducing the Sustainomics framework, a model integrating environmental, economic and social priorities, FutureCoal’s Manook argued that sustainability requires reliability, competitiveness and social trust, not slogans or ideological purity.
She emphasised that coal’s role extends well beyond electricity to steel, cement, fertilisers, chemicals and emerging advanced materials, and that modern low-emissions coal technologies now operating in Asia demonstrate what Australia is at risk of falling behind on.
“Progress is not measured by what we shut down but by what we build. We do not need a movement defined by refusal; we need one defined by improvement, innovation and balance,” she said.
Manook concluded with a call for a pragmatic, inclusive approach for Australia.
“Australia has been the lucky country, but luck will not chart the future. COP30 and the G20 offer a chance to rethink our trajectory, refocus on real-world solutions and align behind technologies that can deliver at scale,” she noted.
The full National Press Club of Australia address can be viewed here and read here.
Source: FutureCoal