New exports are needed to fill a $50 billion hole the loss of coal earnings will leave in the NSW budget as the world transitions to renewable energy, business leaders have been told.
Coal exports prop up the yearly earnings of Australia's most populous state and Premier Chris Minns says finding alternatives when buyers leave the fossil fuel market will be a long-term challenge.
"(Coal is) our single biggest export - and all of our export partners, everybody who's buying that natural resource, has said they're going to get out of it in the foreseeable future," Mr Minns told the AmCham event in Sydney on Tuesday.
