As admiral Chris Barrie stated at the Australian Clean Energy Summit (ACES): Australia is trying to be two things at once, a renewable energy superpower and an expanding fossil fuel exporter. For years, that contradiction was treated as a sensible hedge. Increasingly, it looks like a strategic liability.
It is also the central finding of WWF-Australia’s new report Energy Crossroads, which examines why managing the decline of fossil fuels is central to securing Australia’s green export future.
The old bargain is expiring
Across the Indo-Pacific, countries are drawing a hard lesson from repeated fossil fuel shocks. Whether triggered by war, supply disruptions or price spikes, the conclusion is the same: dependence on fossil fuels is a vulnerability, not a source of security.
Governments across the region are electrifying and building domestic energy resources specifically to escape the volatility of imported fuels.
