She said many world leaders recognised there was no "one size fits all" solution to combatting climate change and that Australia's experience as a major exporter of energy gave it a valuable perspective on how to reach the net zero goal by 2050.

"As long as Australia continues to be respectful of the nations…I think it has an important role to play," Manook, who recently attended the St Petersburg Economic Forum in Russia, told Australia's Mining Monthly.

"It's showing good leadership, particularly in terms of supporting its own clean technologies in its recent announcements. I think it has recognition that it is an important supplier of key minerals beyond coal and resources to the rest of the world.

"My personal view is that Australia has an important role to play, has an important leadership role to play and I believe that with good understanding and respect of other nations and their priorities, along with their own domestic understanding of its priorities, it will continue to play a pragmatic role."

Manook said there was a noticeable change in attitude at the St Petersburg conference that focusing on renewables alone would not provide a path to zero emissions by 2050 and that coal would be needed to reach the goal.

"What was really relevant and was actually quite good to see was there was quite a pushback about taking a more holistic view around some of the issues around climate change and not necessarily looking at renewables as the panacea," she said.

"The themes of energy security, energy affordability, reliability and climate change responsibility were all on the table.

"It's not just about something that is just purely CO2-based - it is something that is a much broader consideration.

"There was no suggestion that something ought to be eliminated. Many of the nations that participated in that chose clean coal technologies as they did other fossil fuels.

"So I think, we've just sort of got to go back to what is the shared ambition and then be respectful about the different pathways that get us there."

 

Pragmatism

Manook believes a return to pragmatism will ensure parties and nations with divergent needs and agendas will forge solutions.

"The industry, as a global industry really has to come together across the coal value chain and across geographies - and that's really the challenge for the coal industry," she said.

"For those countries that don't have reliable power or electricity at all - for those countries that are experiencing energy poverty - they cannot and should not suffer any delay in getting electricity for the first time.

"Countries should have the right to choose their mix of technologies, their diverse mix to support energy security but also how to deploy the best available technologies.

"Diversity was going to be quite key for some of those countries, coal was important, and that gas might be important but everyone would find their own solution that was right.

"I don't think there was any departure from the idea that technology would be key here to addressing climate change and that a range of technologies ought to be considered. Some of those technologies will be for new coal-fired."

Manook said for every energy technology that was used and for every resource used, there would have to be thought about the carbon footprint all the way through.

"It's quite important that both upstream and downstream, and consumer behaviours are considered and are factored in in that regard," she said.

"You can't just look at it individually for countries, you can't just look at it from a producer's perspective, you've got to look at it over the whole value chain.

"And from that perspective no-one is off the hook."

 

Communication

Manook recognises there is a loud anti-coal clamour but she remains optimistic that common sense will prevail and the coal industry will be part of the solution.

"Obviously there is a lot of loud anti-fossil fuel debate now and it makes it quite hard to cut through the noise in order to get to the solutions we need to," she said.

"I think that's a frustration for most of the governments I speak to but also I have to say it's a frustration for those investors who are actually trying to make decisions about coal or other fossil fuels against the UN Sustainable Development goals.

"There are lots of people going out there and virtually signalling but there also lots of people who are trying to make good decisions both economically, commercially and environmentally. So we really need to shift the debate into one that actually educates on all of those metrics."

Manook said there were a number of new players looking at entering the coal market, and they were making their assessment more based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

"I think there are players out there who are interested in having a broader discussion and who are actually contemplating both sides of the ledger," she said.

"I think that's quite important. Our job is to just get better at communicating that and obviously that's not easy to do against a very strong and very loud anti-fossil fuel sentiment, but it's something that I think we all have to do and obviously not give up on as so many people still depend on coal."

Manook said developing and emerging countries were in a great position compared to developed markets who did not have the options that developing markets have today.

"So you will see more of a diversity of supply," she said.

"And I think, you know, where coal is competitive, cheap and can be deployed for emerging and developing markets, it will, and where it can't, it won't.

"You just got to be realistic about it, coal is not going to be competitive in every market.

"It's not going to be competitive in every developing and emerging market. But for a lot, it will. And that doesn't mean that other base loads like gas, won't be important under new technologies and along with CCS [carbon capture and storage]."

Manook said the challenge ahead to reduce emissions could actually be a force for unity from the coal industry and other fossil fuel industries as well as from a geopolitical perspective in mending relations with China.

"Every leader … including [Chinese] president Xi [Jinping] have come out in support of climate change," she said. 

"Diplomacy is about respect and understanding and a shared a shared goal. And there is a shared goal.

"There's a shared goal from many of the major leaders to actually reduce the impact of carbon emissions.

"There's a point at which we can all come together and then the discussion really requires everybody to be respectful and understanding of what those pathways look like and they're going to look different."

Manook said the big global challenges of our time which included basic living standards for all would determine the course of the debate about coal's place in the energy mix in the years to come.

"We can't just wrestle with the environmental issues alone because we still need to live and eat and be schooled and have health and have lights and have heating and, for some of us, we need all of that for the first time," she said.

"So these are the real world issues and they have to be thought about in that context. And so, it's going to require some holistic thinking and a real shift to that.

"I think it has to emerge as a much more balanced and intelligent debate than it is at the moment. It just can't simply be about picking favourites or doing what feels popular. It has to be a much more serious contemplation of the facts."

 

Technology

Manook admits there are significant challenges ahead in proving clean coal technology from both a technical and commercial standpoint.

"What are the available technologies now that we can focus on and deploy?" she asked.

"What are the best available technologies that are actually going to help us address this issue in the next 10 to 20 years? And how can we get enabling policies that incentivize the deployment of that?

"That's critical. And without it, we're actually not going to actually hit it because fossil fuels are so much a part of our world and we need to work out how to make them clean almost immediately.

"So we've actually been given steers as to what we should focus on and perhaps that's really where policies need to go to."

Manook said the pandemic had proved how connected the world was and that nations could no longer act in isolation.

"How that affects trade flows I don't know," she said.

"I think ultimately it really depends on policies and complementary policies. So it's quite difficult, but if I were to have a view about what's happening at the moment, the one shared thing that we all have in common is to protect our environment.

"We all live in this world and of this world, and that's quite important. So I think from an energy perspective and an environment perspective and a resource perspective, we're still all dependent or relying on each other in that regard to protect our planet.

"So my view is that we're still going to have to find a global solution to our global issues."