Media

Demolition will represent the end of an era in the Hunter region. The power station’s closure also holds great national significance as a blueprint to what the future could hold for Australia’s remaining 18 coal-fired power stations. Read more

Among big miners exiting the coal business, Glencore is the exception, effectively arguing that holding on to its big thermal coal business is not only economically preferable but morally superior. Read more

Our op ed on the new report released today by CEIG and IGCC on what investors need to accelerate the energy transition – collaboration from government with policy and investment to derisk decarbonisation of the electricity sector and attract private capital. Read more

Australia stands to be a massive beneficiary of the global decarbonisation race – if it gets the policy and investments right, says Tim Buckley. The good news, says Buckley, is that alongside domestic government policy, global investment giants like Brookfield are increasingly crowding in. Read more

As the Guardian reports the finding of the federal Resources and Energy Quarterly that export earnings from lithium are set to match thermal coal within 5 years, Tim Buckley said public support for private investment in renewably powered refining operations should come from the $15bn national reconstruction fund and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the government’s ‘green bank’. “The massive opportunities emerging for Australia from the accelerating global energy transition are crystal clear,” he said. Read more

In this analysis, Tim Buckley looks at Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ call to back the FIRB recommendation to reject a Chinese-linked fund’s increased equity stake in emerging Australian critical minerals developer, Northern Minerals, in the context of Australia’s massive and burgeoning opportunity to lead the world in value-added critical minerals. Read more

Tim Buckley notes that for building and pest reports, the “caveat emptor” principle applies, and the onus is on the buyer to obtain any necessary knowledge. “Sellers are going to be reluctant to provide climate risk information. They’ll be virtually admitting “I bought in a flood plain 40 years ago.” Buckley believes it is up to the government to provide accurate information, although if they don’t already own it, they will need to either pay to acquire the data or cover the cost of reports from private providers. Read more

Tim Buckley comments that the Safeguard Mechanism installed by the former LNP government “has been 100% ineffective over the last couple of years at doing anything but giving heavy industries a free excuse to keep on polluting,” Under the SGM reforms put in place by the current government “the value of carbon credits is likely to go up over time quite rapidly toward the cap,” of A$75/mtCO2e set by the government – a credible and rising price on carbon to incentivise decarbonisation. Read more

Adam Bandt says the emissions pact struck with Chris Bowen will kill off Betaloo Basin gas projects. Shares in gas companies Empire and Tamboran took an immediate hit. Tim Buckley weighs the frackers’ deficient responses on their emissions risks. Read more

Forbes probes Vinod Adani, Gautam’s older brother accused by Hindenburg of market manipulation and money laundering. “While his brother gives speeches and hobnobs with politicians, Vinod stays in the shadows. ‘I’ve always thought it was a partnership,’ says Tim Buckley. ‘Gautam was the warm, cuddly, friendly public face, and Vinod was the mastermind in the private tax haven, the real puppet master’.” Read more

Tim Buckley comments for this story on the passage of the $15bn National Reconstruction Fund through parliament, designed to help develop domestic manufacturing and boost investment in clean tech, noting that while it is modest by comparison to Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, it has the potential to work in concert with the Safeguard Mechanism to crowd-in capital to green investments. Read more

Our op ed in today’s Canberra Times on the deal struck yesterday between the Labor federal government and the Greens with the support of the Teals and David Pocock, which will see an improved Safeguard Mechanism, designed to cut emissions from Australia’s biggest polluters, finally signed into law. Read more