Media

Snowy Hydro, one of Australia’s longest-running renewable energy projects, has signed its first major battery storage deal with Akaysha Energy to build the Elaine Battery in Victoria. The battery will provide short-duration storage to complement Snowy’s long-duration pumped hydro, helping balance supply when solar and wind are unavailable. Tim Buckley of Climate Energy Finance says this marks a turning point, with battery tech disrupting Australia’s fossil-fuel-heavy energy market. Backed by global investor BlackRock, Akaysha plans five battery sites. Buckley argues that large-scale batteries are timely, cost-effective, and essential for decarbonisation, especially amid political inaction and failures of past mega-projects like Snowy 2.0 Read more

A separate account from Bloomberg citing ADNOC officials reported that the scandal was not the sole reason the company walked away from the decision but had dealt a blow to the trust between the two parties. Tim Buckley, director of the public interest think tank Climate Energy Finance, says had the deal gone ahead, ADNOC would have fully owned any other environmental liabilities on its books. That said, he believes ADNOC would have had difficulty in obtaining the necessary FIRB approval. Read more

Last year alone, China began building 94.5 GW of new coal-fired power capacity, the highest in a decade. At the United Nations this week, President Xi Jinping announced China’s new climate goals: cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by just 7-10% below peak levels by 2035, raising the share of non-fossil fuels in energy consumption to 30%, and expanding wind and solar to 3600GW. For the first time, Beijing has set an absolute economy-wide cap on emissions, covering all greenhouse gases. Read more

Tim Buckley from the think tank Climate Energy Finance says that China is stepping up on the global stage as the U.S. pulls back from its climate responsibilities. He notes that China is eager to lead and now has the chance to be seen as the “good guy” in climate action. Buckley highlights that China’s rapid technological development over the past decade has made clean energy solutions more viable and scalable than ever before, helping to accelerate the global transition to lower emissions. Read more

China is following what Xi Jinping has called ‘the principle of building the new before discarding the old’. Read more

Last week, BHP announced the axing of 750 jobs across its Queensland coking coal operations, including the mothballing of its Saraji South mine in the Bowen Basin and the strategic review of its FutureFit skills and training academy in Mackay as part of its efforts to alleviate cost pressures. This was the start of a chain reaction, with Anglo American announcing plans to cut nearly 300 jobs across its Queensland coal division, followed by QCOAL’s announcement of the closure of one of its two sites at the Cook Colliery mine in the days following. Read more

The new rules will effectively cancel out the current National Energy Market-wide open access regime, with VicGrid saying it’s creating challenges for developers in choosing where to invest and for communities through uncoordinated development. Consultation will be open until November 5, and VicGrid hopes to have its Victorian Access Regime start in mid-March 2026. Even though the access rules are more prescriptive than anything tried to date in Australia, anything that spells out what the clear expectations are will give greater certainty, says Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley. Read more

Tim Buckley, a director of CEF, calculated the Albanese government had pledged $70 billion and states had promised about $6 billion since the start of 2023. This included commitments made last week as part of the federal government’s 2035 emissions reduction target of 62 per cent to 70 per cent on 2005 levels, such as $1.1 billion to develop low-carbon liquid fuels that will assist airlines to reduce carbon emissions and a $2 billion top up to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Only about $16 billion of the total has been deployed since December 2024, Buckley estimated. Read more

Caroline Wang, an analyst with the Australian think tank Climate Energy Finance, said the resulting renewables buildout has recently left China’s world-leading coal fleet running at less than half capacity. “They are just leading the world by an absolutely mind-boggling margin,” Wang said. Emissions in China are estimated to have fallen 1% in the first half. Meanwhile, nearly half the passenger vehicles sold in the country last year were all-electrics or plug-in hybrids. Read more

The idea that the state purse might receive a higher rate when prices surge is particularly sensitive for coalminers because they are in a sector that may not have many booms left. “Structural decline in one of Australia’s largest fossil fuel export commodities coupled with rising unit costs are the factors driving these investment and operating decisions, not Queensland’s nation-leading royalty scheme,” says Matt Pollard, an analyst at clean energy consultancy Climate Energy Finance. Read more

The government plans to cut carbon emissions by 62–70% to help stop global warming caused by pollution. Some politicians are against the plan. But expert Tim Buckley says investors might still support it because it encourages new investment. However, the political pushback could make things harder. Read more

This discusses the Australian government’s ambitious target to reduce emissions by 62–70% by 2035, although they had hoped for a 75% target. They highlight that climate risk reports, supported by scientists, emphasise the financial and environmental risks of inaction, with potential costs reaching A$50 billion annually by 2050. The speaker stresses the importance of aligning with global efforts, particularly in North Asia, to ensure future economic stability. They argue that transitioning to cleaner energy will not only benefit the environment but also reduce energy costs and create economic opportunities, despite opposition from some groups. Read more