IEEFA appoints Anne-Louise Knight as lead coal analyst for Australia

Anne-Louise Knight serves as IEEFA's Lead Coal Analyst for Australia, examining long-term outlooks for thermal and coking coal in Australian and major export markets. Her research focuses on supporting a profitable and sustainable energy transition that promotes equitable economic growth.

Knight brings experience from the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, where she conducted in-depth research on Australia's international trade and investment landscape as a senior economist. Prior to that role, she worked with the New South Wales Government on water policy and energy programmes. Her career also includes work with the Stockholm Environment Institute in Bangkok, where she examined the gender and social equity dimensions of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, providing cross-disciplinary depth to her energy transition analysis.

At IEEFA, Knight's analytical work on coal markets is particularly relevant at a time when Australia's thermal and metallurgical coal export outlook is under increasing scrutiny. Key export destinations including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are accelerating their shift away from coal toward renewable energy, while new and emerging market demand is insufficient to offset volume declines in established markets. Her research contributes to IEEFA's broader mission of accelerating the transition to a diverse, sustainable and profitable energy economy across the Asia-Pacific region.

Knight holds a Bachelor of International Studies from the University of New South Wales, a Master of Science in Economics and a Master of Arts in Environmental Management and Development from the Australian National University, where she graduated at the top of her class and received the Tiri Tiri Prize. Her academic background in both economics and environmental management positions her to assess not only the financial trajectories of coal markets but also the policy and environmental implications of different transition pathways for coal-dependent communities and economies.

Key figure — Tiri Tiri Prize — awarded to Anne-Louise Knight upon graduating top of her class at Australian National University