AUSTRALIA PERSPECTIVE

Canberra observes Asia's energy crisis with the unease of a country no longer insulated. Taiwan, a major trading partner, has shifted toward coal after the Iran war disrupted the global LNG market — an energy reversal that Bloomberg describes as a forced pivot. Australia is the world's leading exporter of both LNG and coal: every disruption in global energy markets concerns it directly, but not the same way as its neighbors. When LNG is scarce in Asia, Australian exporters benefit from record prices — and Australian consumers pay more at the pump. This paradox defines Australia's position: an energy supplier that benefits from the crisis as an exporter but endures it as a consumer. Taiwan's return to coal is a worrying signal for Australian climate policy: if Asia's largest LNG market turns to coal during crisis, structural LNG demand is less solid than thought. The Australian debate oscillates between commercial opportunism (sell to the highest bidder) and climate responsibility (Taiwanese coal emissions do not stop at the border). Australia is the only country in the panel making money while others lose it — an uncomfortable position the local press rarely mentions.