While China and India crank up their coal-fired power stations like there's no tomorrow, Australia's Labor government remains obsessed with its suicidal net zero fantasy. This isn't leadership, it's economic self-harm dressed up as virtue-signalling. If the world's two biggest "developing" giants (China isn't "developing" anymore) are doubling down on the black stuff, why on earth are we destroying our own energy security, jobs, and future for a policy that achieves precisely nothing on global emissions?

As Macrobusiness highlighted, China, already the world's largest carbon emitter by a country mile, continues its insatiable appetite for coal. New coal mines are in development, and more than 50 large coal units (1 gigawatt or bigger) were commissioned in 2025 alone, a sharp jump from previous years. That's not a slowdown; that's acceleration. India is right there with them, ramping up coal use to power its booming economy and lift millions out of poverty.

The Reality Check Labor Ignores

China isn't some poor emerging nation scraping by. It's an economic superpower with a massive industrial base, yet it keeps building coal plants at record pace while adding renewables. India, with its huge population and development needs, makes no secret of relying on coal for decades to come. Together, they dominate global coal consumption and new capacity additions.

Meanwhile, Australia — a resource-rich developed nation with some of the world's most reliable and affordable coal and gas — is hell-bent on net zero by 2050. Labor's obsession means:

Shuttering reliable baseload power stations

Skyrocketing electricity prices for families and businesses

Killing jobs in mining, regional communities, and manufacturing

Handing market share to our competitors

All while China and India laugh (good for them) and keep burning Australian coal exports anyway. Our emissions reductions are pointless when the big emitters just keep expanding fossil fuel use. This isn't "saving the planet" — it's unilateral economic disarmament fuelled by a moronic chattering class.

Elites vs Ordinary Aussies

This net zero mania isn't irrational by accident. It serves the interests of inner-city elites, global bureaucrats, and rent-seeking renewables investors who profit from subsidies and virtue-signalling. They fly to COP summits, lecture the rest of us about emissions, and watch their investment portfolios boom while regional Australia bleeds. The elites do not suffer, yet, from the logical conclusion of their insane policies.

Ordinary Aussies pay the price:

Higher power bills that hammer households already crushed by cost-of-living pressures

Lost opportunities in our world-class resources sector

A weaker economy less able to defend itself or provide for the next generation

Labor loves to talk about "the science" and international commitments, but conveniently ignores the real-world science of energy reality. Reliable, dispatchable power matters. Cheap energy drives prosperity. And unilateral net zero while the rest of the world expands coal is the definition of madness.

China's not sacrificing its growth for abstract climate targets. India's not crippling its industries. They're pragmatic about energy security. Australia's elites, trapped in their ideological bubble, demand we do the opposite — national suicide by green tape and ideology.

The Broader Pattern of Labor Failure

This fits perfectly with Labor's track record: the stealth death tax on families, attacks on aspiration, and policies that hurt battlers while pretending to help. Net zero is just another front in the war on ordinary Australians who want affordable energy, strong communities, and a government that puts Australia first.

We export coal and gas that powers the world, yet tie our own hands behind our backs with ridiculous targets. The result? Higher global emissions (as coal burns elsewhere) and a poorer Australia. Pathetic.

The Coalition and sensible voices have been warning about this for years. It's time to abandon the net zero cult before it does irreversible damage. Prioritise cheap, reliable energy. Back our resources sector. Put Australian jobs, families, and security first, not the fantasies of global elites who don't have to live with the consequences.

Australia doesn't need to lead the world into energy poverty. We need leaders with the backbone to say: enough. If China and India are powering ahead with coal, our obsession with net zero isn't climate heroism, it's self-inflicted national decline.

Time to wake up before it's too late.

https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2026/05/india-and-china-double-down-on-coal-consumption/