November 25, 2025 - FutureCoal has welcomed the outcomes of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg and the COP30 climate negotiations in Belém, noting that both major global forums reinforced the needs of many emerging economies requiring balanced, methodical, technology-neutral energy pathways.

Significantly, both leadership meetings rejected calls for a prescriptive and inflexible fossil-fuel phaseout.

FutureCoal Chief Executive Michelle Manook said the alignment across the two summits “marks a decisive moment for global energy realism” and reflects the principles of technological neutrality and sovereign choice embedded in the Paris Agreement. 

Michelle Manook

Both COP30 and the G20 concluded without agreement on a fossil-fuel phase-out roadmap.  

COP30’s final text omitted any reference to fossil fuels, while the G20 Leaders’ Declaration reaffirmed that nations will determine their own energy pathways according to their sovereign development priorities, security needs and affordability considerations.  

“These outcomes confirm what the Paris Agreement intended from the outset: there is no single pathway and no mandated fossil-fuel phaseout,” Ms Manook said. “A credible transition must recognise technological diversity, national circumstances and the need to uphold reliability and affordability. A transition that overlooks baseload supply and industrial stability is not a transition — it is a risk.”  

Recent commentary surrounding South Korea’s COP30 announcement underscored the importance of precision in energy language. South Korea pledged to phase out unabated coal by 2040, yet it was widely misreported as a phaseout of all coal.  

“Clear terminology matters,” Ms Manook said. “When the distinction between abated and unabated technologies is lost, the public is not given an accurate picture of what countries have committed to. This creates confusion and obscures the progress and modernisation already underway across global energy systems.”  

Both summits reaffirmed the role of zero- and low-emission technologies, including abatement systems, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and advanced industrial applications. Ms Manook said these outcomes strongly align with FutureCoal’s Sustainable Coal Stewardship (SCS) framework, which outlines abated technologies capable of reducing emissions by up to 99%.  

“We do not need a movement defined by refusal; we need one defined by improvement, innovation and balance,” she said. “COP30 and the G20 have reinforced that progress will come from what we build — not from what we shut down.”  

FutureCoal Chairman and Seriti Resources Group CEO Mike Teke said the outcomes mark an important turning point for global energy cooperation.  

“COP30 and the G20 have moved the conversation beyond ideology and into implementation,” Mr Teke said. “For developing and industrialising regions, including much of Africa, Asia and Latin America, the priority is not choosing between development and decarbonisation but ensuring that investment frameworks allow us to achieve both. These outcomes signal a global readiness to support practical solutions, not prescriptive pathways.” 

Watch the full National Press Club address: https://youtu.be/YcTPIlfSBOg?si=kLltJ3_Aod1Ikgp1  

Read the full National Press Club address: https://www.futurecoal.org/full-script-futurecoal-ceo-michelle-manooks-powerful-address-at-the-national-press-club-of-australia/  

About FutureCoal  

FutureCoal Limited is the Global Alliance for Sustainable Coal and the world’s only coal multi-lateral and neutral representative organisation. Formerly the World Coal Association, FutureCoal represents a body of like-minded coal value chain participants who promote responsible education and transformation across the coal value chain through modernisation and deployment of abatement technologies and processes.  

At the core of its work is Sustainable Coal Stewardship (SCS), a practical framework that outlines existing and proven technologies across the global coal value chain that can reduce emissions by up to 99%, while extracting more value per tonne to deliver meaningful environmental and economic benefits.  

For more information, please visit FutureCoal's website: www.futurecoal.org.