China is home to half of the world’s solar, half of the world’s wind power and half of the world’s electric cars. “In the month of April alone, 45.2GW of solar was added, more than Australia’s total cumulative solar power capacity,” Caroline Wang said. “China’s renewable capacity has exponentially increased and that has also contributed to the drop in coal, in coal use and emissions. There is now a structural kind of decline of coal.” That’s already having an impact on emissions. Read more

Tim Buckley, the director of Climate Energy Finance, said the battery’s delivery could help bring energy prices down by supporting more green energy projects to completion. “It will [help] more wind and solar and firming capacity into the grid, all of which means we will see electricity prices stabilise and then progressively, hopefully come down over time,” he said. Read more

Brendan Lang knows a bit about going electric. The tradie from Melbourne’s north installs electrical appliances, including rooftop solar panels and batteries, in homes transitioning away from gas. So when the time came to replace his Volkswagon Amarok ute, he opted for an EV, figuring it would eventually save him money and help his business. But that decision, he says, was based on the availability of a generous tax break introduced by Labor in 2022. Read more

Blair Palese, founder of CEF partner Climate Capital Forum and CEF board member writes that “Australia faces a unique, time- sensitive economic opportunity. Treasurer Jim Chalmers has rightly put productivity at the heart of Australia’s economic agenda, outlining key pillars to create a dynamic, resilient and fu- ture-ready economy. But events in the US have dramatically ex- panded Australia’s potential economic opportunities.” Read more

For green hydrogen, the valley is looming large after two energy giants withdrew support for multibillion-dollar Australian projects within one month. Following the announcements, a $14 billion plant will no longer be built in Gladstone, Queensland and a $55 billion proposal for Western Australia’s Pilbara region is in doubt. But while the global green hydrogen hype is starting to deflate, climate, energy and finance experts say there are still plenty of reasons to pursue production of the zero-emission fuel in Australia. Read more

Highlights Australia’s Federal Senate Disinformation inquiry ARENA award to Calix $45m Allegra Spender Productivity and Tax Roundtable Lowlights Lithium Hydroxide Refinery Write-off by IGO Main Story The Race to 82% Renewables AEMO’s Quarterly Energy Dynamics 2QCY2025 Methane gas generation plays an important but small and progressively declining role 25% upscaling of the CIS Big BESS News What’s coming up? CEF hoping Minister Bowen will go the top end of the CCA’s 65-75% reduction target. Australia is yet to win the presidency of #COP31, if we do, that will be a key priority for CEF’s Caroline Wang over the coming 15 months. Read more

Tim Buckley, a former investment banker and the director of Climate Energy Finance, describes Adani’s finances as an “extremely complex, opaque corporate structure”. Read more

Stiell’s comments come as Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce and One Nation’s Pauline Hanson push a private member’s bill to scrap Australia’s 2050 net zero target, exposing divisions within the Coalition. Meanwhile, the Albanese government is preparing to set its 2035 target next year, due in September, a decision widely viewed as a test of whether Australia intends to match the pace of global decarbonisation or remain tethered to its fossil fuel export model. Tim Buckley, founder of Climate Energy Finance, said the 2035 target represents Australia’s chance to align with the global clean energy transition and secure long-term economic and geopolitical benefits. Read more

Adani’s accounts show that even though revenue has been rising from the Carmichael operations, it has enough interest on related-party loans and other expenses to keep reporting losses. ATO disclosures for the Abbot Point terminal business, now named North Queensland Export Terminal Holdings, between 2013 and 2023 showed just one record of the Adani entity paying tax, which was for $4m in 2017-18. The port regularly generates annual income of between $300m and $550m. Tim Buckley, a former investment banker and the director of Climate Energy Finance, says that given Adani has not paid tax during recent periods of surging coal prices, it probably never will. Read more

“The Chinese companies are ready to go,” says Tim Buckley, director at Climate Energy Finance. “But they’re waiting on clarity around incentives, and a signal they’re welcome.” Treasury has confirmed that private Chinese firms like CATL, BYD and Trina Solar face no restrictions under FIRB rules – though state-owned enterprises remain sensitive. Still, Buckley warns, “we need to partner with them, bring in their robotics, and leverage our low-cost energy future”. Read more

Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance, a pro-renewables energy analysis group, said the Albanese government had been ignoring its responsibility for the emissions caused by the fossil fuel it sells overseas. “The Albanese government has acted on scope one through the safeguard mechanism [which forces industry emission cuts],” Buckley said. “They’re acting on scope two by decarbonising our electricity system. But they’re failing to act on scope three – that’s what the Woodside decision highlighted. Read more

It will be of a Barnaby Joyce sideshow in a parliamentary corridor in which he announced he would introduce a private member’s bill to dump Australia’s goal to reach net zero by 2050. Joyce and his former political foe Michael McCormack had apparently arrived in Canberra having cooked up a plan to carve up the spoils of the Coalition’s comprehensive election loss. “This is a hell of crowd,” Joyce chirped as he lobbed up to the press pack he had gathered. He gave three main reasons for dumping the target, all of which are wrong. Read more