"I wonder if Roger has included the new coal fired plants they intend to build over the next decade or if he’s just referring to the existing ones?"
The other issue to be considered is that the existing fleet of coal-fired power stations in the largest coal-importing countries is still very young, especially in the two countries which are by far the fastest-growing in emissions, namely China and India (not so fun fact: between them, emissions from China and India rise each year by the equivalent of the total annual emissions of Australia, in other words, they are adding an entire Australia each year):
Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence World Electric Power Plants Database (December 2020)
(Average age is capacity weighted)
So it is still a good two decades before the current installed capacity approaches its used-by date.
It will be good if that capacity gets shuttered any time soon for some reason, but I very much doubt it.
So, in that context the Labor's Party's apparent new-found support for the coal industry in Australia is quite rational.
