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The state government embraced that plan and promised $600 million to fund a 250 MW green hydrogen electrolyser and a 200 MW hydrogen power plant – both among the largest in the world – to support the steelworks, other customers, and the state’s own plans to reach 100 per cent net renewables by 2027. That Hydrogen Jobs Plan is now likely delayed, and its future uncertain, given the developments around the steelworks. Malinauskas, who has visited Whyalla recently and is reportedly on the way again on Wednesday, has refused to commit to those funds because of the financial uncertainty. Read more

Woodside Energy’s CEO Meg O’Neill sounded a self-serving alarm last week about the risks for Australia of the US’s new administration’s “drill baby drill” mantra, concluding that the ever-looming east coast gas supply shortage demands urgent government actions to accelerate gas exploration and development. Read more

Despite being the hottest year on record, 2024 saw a cooling in attitudes towards climate action, with the realpolitik of corporate profits sidelining environmental, sustainability and governance concerns. For some companies, the reality of taking steps to achieve their green targets was shoved into the “too hard”, “too expensive”, or “just plain irrelevant” baskets. Read more

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As the world’s top exporter of iron ore, Australia risks losing up to 50% of its $138 billion annual export revenues unless it invests in green iron production, according to a report by Climate Energy Finance (CEF). The report, Green Metal Statecraft: Forging Australia’s Green Iron Industry, argues that the shift towards decarbonisation in key markets such as China demands urgent action to maintain Australia’s role in the global steel supply chain. 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

“Australia is never going to be able to compete on our own against the Chinese, the robotics, the artificial intelligence, the scale of their manufacturing, their phenomenal investments in research and development, all of that says we’ll never catch them,” says Tim Buckley. “But we don’t have to catch them; we can partner with them”. Read more

A new report released today by independent public interest think tank Climate Energy Finance (CEF), SUPERPOWERING-UP, with a foreword by former chief scientist Dr Alan Finkel, finds that failure to act now to electrify and decarbonise WA’s Pilbara region – Australia’s resources engine room and the world’s biggest exporter of iron ore – risks Australia’s biggest single future export opportunity: to potentially double our iron exports to $250bn pa by producing green iron. Read more

“It is ridiculous and beyond disappointing that the Australian Government in 2024 is releasing a long-term strategy that centres methane gas in the transition to net zero by 2050. The strategy released today is a massive misstep in the context of the strides the Albanese government has been making in pivoting to our economic future as renewables powered zero-emissions trade and investment leader. Read more

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The new analysis is the first to quantify and compare the capital allocations of the Big 4 banks to renewable energy and whole of economy decarbonisation. It reveals that only 7% of the Big 4 banks’ collective $385bn sustainable finance target (SFT) by 2030 is directed to financing renewable energy and hard to abate industries. The vast majority of their climate-related capital allocations – between 44% and 72% – channelled into the low hanging fruit of BAU ‘green buildings’ that meet minimum energy efficiency regulations. Read more