Actions of the new Australian Government are at the top of his list, starting with changes to climate-change policies, which should bring a more sensible approach to a contentious subject, and topped by the return of that pro-mining ministerial warrior, Ian Macfarlane.

Not far behind are developments much further from home with European governments slowly waking to the crisis they have brought on themselves by rushing into high-cost alternative power schemes that are costing thousands of jobs, and with much worse to come.

Then there’s the big one. The next instalment of the United Nations report into climate change, which is due to be revealed at the end of next week, with potentially far-reaching, and negative implications, for the climate-change industry that has sprung up around the world.

No-one has yet connected the dots that link what is happening in Australia with what is happening in Europe with what is happening at the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – but that is because no-one is watching quite as closely as The Hog.

Over the past week he has been joining the dots and there is a picture emerging of coal reclaiming much of its lost ground as a politically acceptable industry with a critical role to play in overcoming the global economic slowdown that is lingering on after the 2008 financial crisis.

If that sounds like too many threads are being pulled together at once then consider the separate happenings and see if you arrive at a similar conclusion.

In Australia, the multiple layers of government bureaucracy created by the previous government are being dismantled as a precursor to killing the carbon tax and creating an environment that welcomes investment in all forms of mining.

Macfarlane will be a key player in promoting mining, especially in his native Queensland, home of a big chunk of Australia’s coal export industry.

In Europe, there is an emerging panic which The Hog has mentioned in the past. However, that panic is taking on an increasingly shrill tone as some of that region’s heaviest political hitters discover the extent of the damage being done by attempting to switch from low-priced coal to high-priced wind and solar power.

After Germany gets its federal election out of the way over the weekend there will be a lot more said about power costs and the need for a return to a more sensible set of power policies, especially after what the European Industry Commissioner said last week.

Antonio Tajani said in an interview that Europe was facing a “systemic industrial massacre” as high and rising power costs forced industries to flee the region in search of cheaper power.

All of the above will coalesce at the end of the month when the IPCC meets in Stockholm to consider its next report on what has been happening to the world’s weather lately, and whether the alarming claims in previous reports were accurate.

Leaks of what could be in the next report have already surfaced and a few of The Hog’s colleagues have noted that there could be a considerable toning down of the scare campaign that has rattled politicians and led to the assault on coal.

While it is always tricky speculating on leaked documents because they have a habit of not telling the whole story, even if part of what has been leaked so far is true then that will compound the attacks on the extremists in the climate change industry.

Top of the leaked claims are fresh global temperature forecasts that are half what was previously claimed. No hard evidence of any temperature rise in the past 15 years, and little evidence of a decrease in Antarctic ice, one of the big scares of the past decade.

Taken together and there does appear to be a sea-change underway as politicians discover that by subscribing to extreme climate change views they have damaged their own countries and done nothing to save the planet.

As that reality dawns, the political pendulum will swing back, and with that change should come a more sensible treatment of the coal industry. That will eventually flow into increased demand as industry and households switch back to a reliable and cost-efficient power source.