Australia’s sunny climate could help produce hydrogen Chad Ehlers/Getty

IT WAS billed as the climate change election, but the climate lost. Last month, Australians re-elected the Liberal-National coalition government, a shock win over the opposition Labor party. The government has been seen as slow to act on climate change, while Labor offered an ambitious carbon reduction policy.

Yet economics may soon force the coalition to go green. Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of liquified natural gas (LNG) and the second biggest for coal, but a renewable energy revolution is coming. As Australia’s nearby trading partners, including China, South Korea …