Labor and the Coalition have been accused of going to the election on a “unity ticket” ignoring Australia’s main contribution to the climate crisis after a report revealed thermal coal exports reached record levels in the final quarter last year.
Government data shows the country shipped a record amount – 57m tonnes – of coal for burning in overseas power plants between October and December. It is the highest recorded for a three-month period.
Australia is the world’s second-largest exporter of thermal coal, behind Indonesia. It exported 209m tonnes during 2024, the second-highest amount for a calendar year.
The data from the Department of Industry, Science and Resources was released during an election campaign in which the major parties have debated the future mix of the electricity grid, but which has been largely not focused on the impact of the climate crisis.
Labor has announced one new climate policy – a subsidy for household batteries. The Coalition has not released plans to cut emissions over the next decade, and has pledged to unwind or scrap several Labor policies introduced to cut climate pollution. Neither has discussed Australia’s fossil fuel exports.
The head of research at the fossil fuels campaign group Lock the Gate Alliance, Georgina Woods, said global heating caused by burning fossil fuels was “already affecting Australian businesses, community wellbeing, household bills and national security” and damaging “our extraordinary natural heritage”.
“It is really alarming that the country’s political leaders don’t seem to understand this threat and what it will take to protect us from escalating harm. They seem content to let the coalmining companies have their head,” she said. “Political leaders need to get tough and get real for the good of the country, and make it clear to the industry that the national interest comes first.”
Gavan McFadzean, from the Australian Conservation Foundation, said the country’s thermal coal exports were an “appalling contribution” to the climate crisis and a “major handbrake” on global efforts to cut emissions. He said the major parties were running on a “unity ticket” of trying to get the Australian public thinking “there’s nothing to see here”.
The foundation estimated that last year the coal exports would have led to 483m tonnes of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere after being burned overseas – more than the total CO2 released within Australia, which was about 435m tonnes.
Both major parties have argued that there remained a global market for fossil fuels and if Australia reduced its sales they would just be replaced by coal and gas from other countries in a way that would lead to no overall gain but would hurt parts of the local economy.
The climate change minister, Chris Bowen, last year told Guardian Australia Labor agreed with people who said the biggest impact Australia could have on the climate was to reduce demand for exports, and that was why the government had backed policies that aimed to make the country a “renewable energy superpower”.
Asked about the most recent thermal coal data, a Labor spokesperson focused on what it was doing “in our national interest to take advantage of the global energy transition”. They said international spending on clean energy was now double what was spent on fossil fuels.
“[We’re] capitalising on our abundant solar and wind and critical minerals to produce and export what’s needed in clean energy supply chains around the world as our partners decarbonise,” they said. “We’ve allocated more than $8bn to scale Australia’s green hydrogen industry and [are] working with regional partners to accelerate their own journeys to net zero.”
The Coalition did not respond to a question about its position on coal exports.
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, said Australia had been the world’s second biggest exporter of climate pollution, based on the emissions from the fossil fuels it ships, under Labor. “Australia is being hit with fires and floods, yet Labor has approved over 30 new coal and gas projects and Peter Dutton wants even more,” he said.
He said the Greens would demand in the next parliamentary term that the climate change minister use powers introduced in 2023 – as part of a revamp of a policy known as the safeguard mechanism – to stop the approval of new coal and gas extraction “with the stroke of a pen”.
The International Energy Agency has forecast that if governments meet pledges to cut emissions the global thermal coal trade should fall by 27% between 2025 and 2030.
But the government report, including the latest export data, suggests Australian officials believe that the country’s thermal coal sales could fall to only 200m tonnes – a 4% drop – by the end of the decade.
Woods said the Australia coal industry continued to plan for mine expansions instead of preparing “in an orderly manner for change”, and that local communities would carry the cost “when coalmines close at short notice”.
Political debate on climate issues during the campaign has focused on the contrast between what the parties propose for the power grid. Labor has an underwriting program for large-scale solar, wind and batteries, and a target of 82% of electricity coming from renewable energy by 2030.
The Coalition has promised to slow the rollout of renewable energy and rely more on fossil fuel power plants, including keeping coal generators running longer, and eventually building taxpayer funded nuclear plants, mostly after 2040. The Climate Change Authority estimates this could add 2bn more tonnes of emissions to the atmosphere than Labor’s policy.
The Coalition has also said it would scrap Labor’s 2030 emissions target – a 43% cut compared with 2005 levels. Neither party has announced 2035 emissions targets or released a plan to reach net zero emissions. Labor began work on a plan in the last term and has promised a 2035 goal by September if re-elected.
