China’s emissions were down 1.6 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025 and by 1 per cent in the latest 12 months, according to Myllyvirta’s analysis of new economic and climate data. China’s rapid deployment of electricity supply from new wind and solar infrastructure as well as hydro and nuclear, alongside its efforts to electrify its economy – particularly through the rapid roll-out of electric vehicles – has displaced coal and oil use and thereby cut emissions. Read more

“Australia leads the world in battery energy storage deployment. The biggest problem we’ve got is trying to get those connected to the grid,” says Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley. “The Waratah Super Battery was actually commissioned in November last year, but it’s still not operating. It actually helped the grid in November when we had a major energy demand shock, but it’s still not operating nine months later. Read more

The electorate rejected the LNP’s nuclear con job, energy transition delay tactics and climate denialism. Labor was returned with a decisive mandate to accelerate Australia’s renewable energy rollout and economy-wide decarbonisation. The nuclear fallout now includes an historic rupture between the Coalition partners, with the Liberal and National Parties committing the most spectacular act of political self-annihilation in living memory. Read more

Albanese and Dutton’s pre-election stoush over the Port of Darwin made one thing clear – Australia remains deeply ambivalent about Chinese investment. Each promising to end the lease if elected, the major parties clearly believed a billion-dollar national security stunt would play well with the electorate. This, despite Dutton taking no issue with the lease as a cabinet minister in 2015, and multiple reviews by Australian security agencies finding insufficient grounds to terminate it. Read more

China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Limited (CATL) produces more than a third of all EV batteries sold worldwide and supplies major carmakers including Tesla, Volkswagen and Toyota. The listing was closely watched as the US-China tariff war upended the global trading system and hit carmakers hard. Read more

CATL is currently building its second European factory in Hungary, after opening a plant in Germany in early 2023. In December, the firm announced a tie-up with Chrysler-owner Stellantis to build a $4.3bn (£3.2bn) EV battery plant in Spain. The facility is set to be in operation by the end of next year. The firm invests heavily in new technology, with six research and development centres around the world. Read more

However, Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance, a Sydney think-tank, noted that few Chinese cleantech companies would be as attractive to international investors. “CATL is an exception; even as they’ve delivered very strong growth, they’ve also delivered good profit margins,” he said, adding: “For the solar, wind and lithium companies . . . profit is one of the least important drivers.” Read more

Tim Buckley was not impressed. After a scandalous article appeared in the financial press citing the Clean Energy Council’s apparent embrace of methane gas as a “transition fuel” Buckley, who bows to no fossil fuellers and is one of the transition industry’s most respected commentators, called it “bizarre”. Methane does play an important role in electricity system firming, but its role is small and declining, and the battery disruption will only accelerate this ongoing decline. Read more

According to corporate announcements and financial statements compiled by Climate Energy Finance, a Sydney-based research group, Chinese companies have, since the start of 2023, committed $156bn in outbound foreign direct investment across more than 200 clean technology transactions. This effort is expanding Beijing’s political and economic influence globally just as the Trump administration pursues a hard decoupling from Chinese supply chains and roils global trade Read more

At the public meeting organised by SPA on 26 April, Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance (CEF), made the following points: – CEF acts on the basis of climate science, and the last 11 years were the warmest on record – The world invested US$2.1 trillion in cleantech in 2024, over 11% year on year – The boom in solar and wind pushed the world past 40% clean electricity in 2024 Read more

Republished from RENEW ECONOMY, 7 May 2025 Tim Buckley, from Climate Energy Finance, says that with Labor returned to government, it is time to “grasp this moment of policy certainty” and use it to build investor confidence, crowding-in domestic and foreign financial capital at scale to underpin our transition. Read more

“Without customers, suppliers and governments working together to a common time-frame, these projects aren’t going to get built, and that’s why we’ve seen so many announcements in the press of companies going bankrupt because they can’t do the capital raising anymore, or projects being slowed right down” Read more