Media

Millions of low-and-middle income Australian households are struggling to pay soaring power bills, so hearing that one of the big companies supplying that power is raking in enormous profits may be hard to swallow. AGL Energy has posted a first half underlying profit after tax of $399 million, up 359 per cent on the same period last year. It achieved the bumper profit through higher prices for customers. Tim Buckley told ABC that the wholesale cost has came down, but the retail prices held up. This is due to the function of the regulator’s protections that are in place under the Australian energy regulator. As a result, we see a lag impact on the retail pricing, and we will see a different profile come the 1st of July 2024 than the profile we’ve seen in the last 2 years. Read more

The transition of Australia’s energy system will simply not happen without diversified supply: offshore wind projects are an important component now available for our future energy system. Climate Capital Forum member and experienced wind energy executive, Naomi Campbell, outlines the extensive feasibility process involved and the opportunity for community engagement. Read more

Tim Buckley breaks down the COALition’s attempt to kill the renewables revolution by sowing disinformation and dissent in the community as the rest of the world rapidly decarbonises Read more

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As Tim Buckley and Annemarie Jonson write, the Coalition’s Luddites are at it again, doing what they do best – wrecking the joint as they try to blow up the renewables transition. Meanwhile, investment in the clean energy that will solve the climate crisis and deliver permanent energy bill relief to consumers is skyrocketing Read more

Tim Buckley, the current director at Climate Energy Finance, offers his insights on the Fels Report which analyses the inflationary impact of corporate greed among aviation and energy companies in Australia. Reacting to increasing energy costs, Tim surmises that Australian consumers face abuses due to the disproportionally high number of oligopolies exerting their market power. Consequently, excessive price inflation, particularly in the energy sector, has become prevalent despite Australia being a premiere energy exporter, with automotive fuel prices increasing by 45%, gas prices by 36%, and electricity prices by more than 20%. Read more

Climate and energy experts criticised a $137 million federal grant to BlueScope Steel for a $1.15 billion upgrade of its Port Kembla blast furnace – extending coal-based steelmaking for two decades – as a missed chance to spur more ambitious carbon reductions. The Climate Capital Forum, which represents investors, decarbonisation firms and policy experts, said that “while Australia procrastinates, developed world leaders are pivoting”. Read more

Blair Palese, Founder, Climate Capital Forum comments on the Coalition’s campaign to suspend investment in decarbonisation , calling it “reckless and short sighted”. Read more

Clean Energy Finance director Tim Buckley says extensive community consultation, including with landholders, communities and First Nations peoples must be central to planning for the rollout of renewables. But “so should pivoting policy momentum and public capital to our massive, once in a century opportunity to establish Australia as a renewable energy and zero-emissions trade and investment superpower. Read more

Tim Buckley speaks to Charging Sessions podcast about the energy and eMobility transition Read more

“The result is that China has a dramatically larger capacity to export solar modules as 2024 and 2025 unfold, and the resulting global oversupply is pushing [solar] module prices down dramatically,” said Tim Buckley, Sydney-based director of Climate Energy Finance. China’s export prices of modules have halved, and their efficiencies have improved dramatically because of investments in research and development, he said. “All of this is increasing the commercial viability of solar relative to alternative sources of electricity, both within China and in the wider Asian markets and globally,” Buckley said. Though its early days, China should be able to leverage its leadership with trade partners in Asia, Africa and South America, he added. Read more

Lachlan Maddock, Editor of Investor Strategy News points to Climate Capital Forum’s proposal in its pre-budget submission for the Future Fund to include a “strategic national interest objective”. Read more