Australian climate advocacy group Comms Declare has urged the country’s National Press Club (NPC) to cancel a scheduled address by Michelle Manook, chief executive of the coal lobby group Future Coal, arguing that giving a platform to the coal lobby undermines climate science and policy.
Manook is due to speak at the NPC, one of Australia’s most influential public forums, on Tuesday, 18 November.
Future Coal, a new name given to the World Coal Association following a rebrand in 2023, represents global producers of the fossil fuel. Comms Declare, a non-profit that campaigns for an end to fossil fuel advertising in Australia, said the lobby group should not be accorded the legitimacy of a prestigious media stage.
Future Coal, in a LinkedIn post last week, said that Manook would challenge her audience to “think differently about coal” and “the path to real sustainability” in her speech, which would explain “coal’s role in an industrial, low-emission future.”
In a letter to the NPC, Comms Declare pointed to Future Coal’s reported ties to Russia, its track record of opposing stronger climate policy and its promotion of greenwashing narratives, including the continued use of the term “clean coal”.
Positioning coal as “sustainable” has been a common feature of communications to promote coal in other large producer countries. Indonesia’s largest coal miner, Adaro, was criticised in 2022 for promoting a planned coal-powered aluminium smelter as a green, renewable development. Indonesia’s sustainable finance taxonomy has also faced scrutiny for categorising coal plants that power nickel smelters as green.
Bingo cards for journalists to refer to during a speech by Future Coal’s CEO, created by Comms Declare. The cards contain phrases likely to feature in the speech [click to enlarge]. Image: Comms Declare
Comms Declare plans to hand out “Climate obstruction bingo” cards [pictured, right] at the event to highlight common industry talking points it considers to be misleading that may feature in Manook’s speech.
Belinda Noble, founder of Comms Declare, said the NPC was falling behind other journalism institutions that have severed their relationships with fossil fuel interests. She noted that the Walkley Awards and the National Press Gallery Mid-Winter Ball have dropped fossil fuel sponsors, while the NPC continues to host fossil fuel executives and maintain links with companies such as oil and gas giant Woodside.
“Fossil fuel lobbying is one of the reasons we don’t have the strong climate action that most Australians want and need, and giving the coal lobby the NPC stage legitimises that obstruction,” Noble said in a statement.
The ongoing burning of coal for energy is a major obstacle to addressing global heating, Comms Declare noted. Research non-profit Climate Analytics has concluded that keeping global heating to a 1.5°C limit requires a dramatic collapse in coal use. It found that coal-fired electricity generation must fall by 80 per cent from 2010 levels by 2030, that OECD nations should phase out coal entirely by the end of this decade, and that all coal power stations worldwide must close no later than 2040.
The NPC said in its response to Comms Declare that it would proceed with the event. The organisation stressed its confidence that journalists in attendance would ask rigorous questions and said that hosting a speaker should not be interpreted as support for the views of Future Coal.
The dispute comes as the level of influence of fossil fuel lobby groups at the COP30 climate talks in Brazil comes under scrutiny. One in every 25 COP30 attendees is a fossil fuel lobbyist, according to data from the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition released on Friday.
