Distributed widely via AAP | Australia risks a catastrophic halving of its iron ore export revenues from a failure to invest in the emerging green iron industry, a think tank warns. In a peer-reviewed report aimed at Treasurer Jim Chalmers, the Climate Energy Finance think tank warns Australia will lose its global lead in iron ore, with devastating economic consequences, unless it quickly offers incentives to kickstart green iron exports. Australia’s top export iron ore could double to more than $250 billion annually if it went green and switching to exporting green iron could also reduce global emissions by one billion tonnes per year, the report found. Read more

Top global iron ore exporter Australia could lose as much as half its revenue from the sector if it fails to start producing green iron fast enough, as other countries start making steel using renewable energy, a think tank said on Friday. To avoid what could be “devastating economic consequences”, Australia needs “a suite of strategic national-interest policy and investment incentives to kickstart a green iron export industry”, the report said. Read more

Independent clean energy think tank Climate Energy Finance has called for a $20 billion Future Fund mandate to enable renewables-powered processing of green metals and for measures to accelerate investment in firmed renewable energy at scale. CEF Net Zero Transformation Analyst and lead author on the report Matt Pollard said Australia’s world leading iron ore producers have extracted huge returns on investment as China prioritised expansion of its steel mills. Read more

Australia accounts for 56% of seaborne iron ore trade, according to government figures. To avoid what could be “devastating economic consequences”, Australia needs “a suite of strategic national-interest policy and investment incentives to kickstart a green iron export industry”, the report said. “In the global race to green iron exports, Australia has numerous competitive advantages – such as abundant and cheap renewables – that we must capitalize on,” said Marilyne Crestias at Clean Energy Investor Group (CEIG). Read more

Australia, the world’s largest iron ore exporter, could see its export revenues plummet by 50 per cent unless it makes an urgent shift to green iron production, according to a new report by think tank Climate Energy Finance. The report, Green Metal Statecraft: Forging Australia’s Green Iron Industry, warns that as global steelmakers transition to low-emission practices, demand for traditional, high-emission iron ore is likely to fall sharply. This shift could cause Australia’s $138 billion iron ore revenue to halve, affecting the nation’s economy and global market standing. Read more

The election of Donald Trump – a felon and climate crisis denier – as president of the United States comes as a stroke of bitter irony after recent floods exacerbated by global warming smashed parts of the southeast US – Hurricane Milton alone is likely to cost up to US$50 billion – and given the escalating intensity of wildfires and other natural disasters taking a huge toll on America and other countries. Trump’s “drill baby, drill” energy policies are a disaster for the US, intergenerational equity and global efforts to mitigate the climate crisis. Read more

Tim Buckley, founder and director of Climate Energy Finance echoed her sentiments. “My mood is that we have to have optimism – we have to look for the positives, because there’s too many negatives around. “We have to look for the massively different economic case today than existed 5 or 10 years ago. Renewables are the low cost and therefore they are the solution. We need to look for partners than are aligned in that and take the opportunity. Read more

The re-election of Donald Trump as US president – a charlatan, fool, felon and climate denier captured and paid for by the fossil fuel cartel – is a bitter irony after the devastating climate-change driven floods that smashed parts of the southeast US recently. Trump’s ‘drill baby drill’ climate and energy ‘policies’ are a disaster for the nation, for intergenerational equity and equality, and will impact global efforts to mitigate climate change. Read more

As part of the USSC Debate Papers series, the Centre invited Xuyang Dong, China energy policy analyst at Climate Energy Finance, and Noah Gordon, acting co-director of the Sustainability, Climate and Geopolitics program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, to discuss whether the United States, Australia and other like-minded allies and partners should cooperate or compete with China when it comes to fighting climate change. Read more

CEF published a major report on the electrification and decarbonisation of the Pilbara in August 2024, that argued that AREH could be a key part of the solution. Tim Buckley and colleague CEF Net Zero Transformation Analyst Matt Pollard, believe that AREH has the potential to act as a model for the Pilbara in how private enterprise can effectively collaborate with state and federal governments to accelerate large-scale renewable energy projects. ‘Renewable energy hubs at the scale of AREH can provide significant cost advantages over distributed, smaller-scale renewable energy projects,’ they say. Read more

Tim Buckley, from Climate Energy Finance, says the IEA report is still likely to be underestimating the deployment of renewables. “Each year the IEA upgrades their renewable energy estimates, having underestimated the deflation of solar and BESS, and underestimating the technology improvements in cleantech as well – wind, solar, BESS and EVs,” Buckley says. “As such, the IEA’s expectation of peaks in all types of fossil fuel energy types is likely still too conservative. This is great news, as clearly global scientists have likewise underestimated the compounding impacts of climate change. “China clearly leads the world in both the manufacturing, domestic installation and export of all cleantech aspects. Read more

Tim Buckley, a leading energy analyst and director of Climate Energy Finance, added, despite a strong increase in investments in renewable energy since the December 2023 COP28 pledge to triple installed capacity by 2030, they are not yet on track to meet this goal, with global capacity expected to grow by 2.7 times by the end of the decade. “This reflects a 25 per cent lift in collective ambition compared to last year, driven by decreasing costs for solar and battery technologies. Increased support from developed nations is crucial for facilitating the energy transition in developing countries, helping to rapidly decarbonise in line with climate science,” Tim Buckley said. Read more