The climate impact of Australia’s fossil fuel exports ranks behind only Russia and Saudi Arabia, in terms of global emissions, according to this report. Australian governments actively promote even greater coal and gas exports and our politicians work hard to avoid confronting the climate impacts of our behavoiur. In reality, those impacts are enormous.

The geopolitics of oil have played a central role in international relations. Some would argue that geopolitical rivalry over access to oil has been the source of much of the conflict in the 20th century. The rise of renewables in the current energy transition could well change this status quo.

This narrative focuses on the Timor Sea and the sovereignty issue over the part of the continental shelf that is adjacent to Australia’s northern coast and which has been coveted by both Indonesia and Timor-Leste.

As Queensland’s government and Opposition compete to sweeten deals for the coal industry, open-cut coal mines in Queensland already get up to 17% of their coal for free, compared with similar mines in NSW. Polling in both Queensland and NSW shows support for ending this subsidy.

This report aims to track each G20 country’s progress in phasing out subsidies to the production and consumption of coal through fiscal support, public finance and state-owned enterprise (SOE) investment.