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Climate Capital Forum founder Blair Palese comments on federal government grant to Bluescope Steel for work to reline existing arc furnace in Port Kembla through Critical Inputs to Clean Energy Industries program. “There is no time left for federal government support for anything except strategies to fully decarbonise as global demand for net-zero materials grows exponentially,” she said. Read more

Allocating taxpayer monies to support BlueScope Steel to invest $1bn to lock in high emissions blast furnace technology for the next 20 years is a missed opportunity according to Climate Capital Forum. Much stronger incentives are urgently needed to reduce – not support new – fossil fuel powered production. Read more

Our joint release with the Climate Capital Forum and Smart Energy Council: Incremental funding for Australia’s potential as a renewables driven critical minerals superpower of another $3bn in MYEFO does not come slightly near the scale and speed of investment and policy ambition that Australia needs today. Read more

China’s surging investment in clean power is challenging a century of fossil fuel hegemony. China is rapidly leading the global clean energy transition, challenging fossil fuel dominance. Recent report by Climate Energy Finance reveals that China’s top State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) are aligning with the government’s ambitious energy targets, aiming for peak CO2 emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. As China accelerates decarbonization, the world has been offered a transformative moment to reach science-based climate targets on time. Read more

In 2020 China set a target of deploying 1200 gigawatts of wind and solar by 2030. (For comparison’s sake, the total capacity of Australia’s grid is 71 gigawatts.) It is now set to reach that target in 2024, six years early. Its annual deployment has doubled this year after leaping by 50 per cent last year. It is installing the equivalent of Australia’s east coast grid in renewables alone, every three months, says the CEF’s director, Tim Buckley. Read more

CEF’s China energy policy analyst, report lead author Xuyang Dong, tracked investment trends of China’s 5 top State Owned Enterprises, reviewing reporting disclosures and corporate data in the original Chinese. Xuyang Dong said: “China is decarbonising the world and the Chinese energy SOEs are playing a significant role in this process, as their massive capital expenditure pivot into renewables and cleantech shows. China’s ambition to lead the greening of the world is evident in its energy policies and climate goals, and reflected in energy SOEs’ capex trends, which highlight the possibility of China exceeding its energy goals. ” Read more

Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance, today hailed Federal Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s decision to expand the Capacity Investment Scheme to a targeted 32GW, a huge stepchange in ambition. Read more

CEF and Climate Capital Forum’s response to the PM’s announcement during his state visit to the US of $2bn additional investment into Australian critical minerals. ““This is a mere token response to the US$1 trillion industrial and energy stimulus of the US Inflation Reduction Act – the biggest in US history – and the single biggest opportunity for Australia this generation. It isn’t even a down payment, it is so lacking in courage, conviction and ambition.” Read more

CEF joined The call for a ten-year $100 billion Australian Renewables Industry Package to respond to the US IRA, endorsed by partners including the Australian Conservation Foundation, Australian Council of Trade Unions, Climate Action Network Australia, First Nations Clean Energy Network, New Energy Nexus, Rewiring Australia and the Smart Energy Council. Read more

CEF welcomes and applauds the politically courageous announcement by the Minns government in NSW today that it will increase the state’s coal royalties to generate a total of $2.7 billion for NSW over four years from 2024. Read more

Climate Energy Finance Director Tim Buckley says United States President Joe Biden is seeing a “huge surge” in employment activity after the country invested in manufacturing. “The US has the inflation reduction act, and we are seeing investors piling in,” Mr Buckley told Sky News Australia. “There’s a bit of trade war that’s emerged between America and China and America’s response is to invest in manufacturing capacity in America, and so President Biden’s seeing a huge surge in employment activity.” Read more

A new report by eminent environmental scientist Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe, commissioned by Lock the Gate, finds that direct methane emissions from fossil fuel facilities make up ~70% of total greenhouse gas emissions covered under the federal Safeguard Mechanism (SGM), when the global warming impact is calculated over 20 years. The report also finds that the use of carbon credits to offset methane, as allowed under the safeguard, is not technically feasible, and more rigour is urgently needed, such as Zali Steggal’s proposed cap on methane within the scheme, Read more