FutureCoal CEO Urges Balance in Australia’s Energy Strategy
FutureCoal Chief Executive Michelle Manook has urged Australia to reintroduce balance, honesty and engineering-based reasoning into its national energy debate, warning that ideological positions are overshadowing practical solutions.
Speaking at the National Press Club of Australia on 18 November, with the address released publicly the following day, Ms Manook stressed that the Paris Agreement does not mandate a fossil-fuel phaseout.
Instead, she said it was founded on principles of technology neutrality, sovereign choice and diverse pathways ranging from fossil fuels with abatement to 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 one.”
Ms Manook identified electricity as “the first domino in the cost-of-living chain”, arguing that rising household and business energy bills reflect the costs associated with rebuilding the nation’s energy system, including storage, firming capacity and major transmission upgrades.
She warned that Australia risks behaving like “the reckless gambler” by presuming that weather-dependent technologies will consistently meet industrial and household demand.
“We have gambled on ideology, on the assumption that luck will hold… and that consumers will absorb rising costs without protest,” she said.
Introducing the Sustainomics model, Ms Manook said sustainability must incorporate environmental, economic and social priorities. Real progress, she argued, requires reliability, competitiveness and social trust—not slogans or purity tests.
She further emphasised the essential role of coal beyond power generation, including in steel, cement, fertilisers, chemicals and advanced materials. Modern low-emissions coal technologies operating in Asia, she said, demonstrate innovations Australia risks neglecting.
“Progress is not measured by what we shut down but by what we build,” she noted. “We do not need a movement defined by refusal; we need one defined by improvement, innovation and balance.”
Ms Manook closed her address by urging policymakers to adopt a pragmatic and inclusive approach as Australia prepares for COP30 and its 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.”
