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Phasing out fossil fuels like coal is considered vital in order to meet the Paris Agreement’s aim of keeping global temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned last year that coal “remains a major threat in relation to climate change.”

But Cormann suggested on Thursday that Morrison’s government had no plans to reduce Australia’s production of coal.

“On a per capita basis we invest more than twice as much into renewable energy than Germany, than France, for example,” Cormann told CNBC. “So we are absolutely focused on boosting renewable energy — right now 25% of our energy supplies in our national electricity market comes from renewables, by 2030 that will be 50%. But coal, not just in Australia but around the world, will continue to be an important source of base load power.”

A U.N. report published in September found that Australia was the fifth biggest investor in renewable energy worldwide, spending $9.2 billion on renewables in 2018. China, the U.S. and Japan were the three biggest spenders. Germany, in eighth place, spent $6.3 billion on renewables capacity in 2018, while France, ranked 12th, spent $4.1 billion, according to the data.

Cormann claimed that some countries, like India, needed access to coal as a base load power source in order to boost the level of renewable energy in their grids.

“The question then becomes, in the context of global demand for coal, do you prefer us to use comparatively cleaner Australian coal with less ash content, less moisture, a higher energy intensity, or the comparatively dirtier coal from other sources?” he asked. “We would say using cleaner Australian coal actually helps reduce emissions compared to what the situation would be in the alternative.”

Australia was the second biggest exporter of coal in 2018, according to data from the International Energy Agency. A December report from the country’s Department of Industry, Innovation and Science claimed coal exports added 70 billion Australian dollars ($48 billion) to the country’s economy last year.