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South Korea has committed at the COP30 climate summit to join the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA) and ending coal-fired power by 2040. This has major implications for coal-exporting Australia. South Korea pledged not to build any new unabated coal plants as part of its membership and reaffirmed its plan to shut down 40 existing coal-fired units by 2040. Tim Buckley, director of think tank Climate Energy Finance and former MD of global investment bank Citigroup said: “South Korea is Australia’s third largest coal market and the world’s fourth largest thermal coal import nation, importing 91Mtpa in 2024. As such, it is brilliant to see South Korea join the Powering Past Coal Alliance at COP30, moving strongly to align with its Paris Agreement commitments to slash emissions. Read more

A new report by think tank Climate Energy Finance, endorsed by The Superpower Institute, warns that locking in high-emissions methane fossil gas in a ‘transition phase’ for Whyalla Steelworks in South Australia would be a grave strategic misstep with damaging budgetary and national interest impacts. The Steelworks entered forced administration in February 2025 after gross mismanagement and undercapitalisation by former owner GFG Alliance. The Federal and SA governments announced a $2.4bn rescue package, saying that Whyalla “is critical for future ambitions for green steel manufacturing, which will be increasingly lucrative as the world decarbonises”. Read more

“Today’s new US$8.5bn United States–Australia Framework for Securing of Supply in the Mining and Processing of Critical Minerals and Rare Earths could well deliver a US/Australia secured supply chain for critical minerals and rare earths, building demand and providing strategic financial support for value-added new projects in core materials indispensable to national capabilities in clean energy tech, computing and defence. Substance and follow through over words will be key to the credibility and real-world impacts of this new announcement. Assuming the framework materialises into action, it should provide a strong additional impetus and foundation to diversify and improve the resilience of global supply chains. Read more

China lead at independent public interest think tank Climate Energy Finance (CEF), Caroline Wang, said: “This sends a strong signal to the international community about China’s sustained commitment to addressing climate change in line with the Paris Agreement. China has not only built the largest and fastest growing renewable energy system in the world, but through its clean technology exports and investments in zero emissions energy infrastructure is helping other nations especially in the Global South to cut emissions and bolster energy security. Read more

“The target range for Australia’s 2035 emissions reduction target has today been set at 62-70%. Clearly the government has gone more for practical deliverability than ambition and alignment with the climate science. Australia’s 43% emissions reduction by 2030 target requires an annual 1.7% cut nationally since 2005, but the step up required is better benchmarked against the 1.5% annual reduction of 29% delivered so far over 2005-2025. Read more

CEF’s new report finds that Australia’s largest taxpayer-funded fossil fuel subsidy – the diesel Fuel Tax Credit (FTC) Scheme – is entrenching dependence on imported high-emissions diesel to power mining operations, undermining climate targets, damaging productivity and draining tens of billions from the federal budget. Read more

As Energy Minister Bowen flags a carbon tariff on some imports, Australia well placed to lead development of a path towards a regional Asian Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism Read more

Australia is well placed to lead development of a path towards a regional Asian Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism involving China, Australia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, as it bids to host COP31. China, as the world leader in decarbonisation and in steel, aluminum and cement, is key. Read more

The CEF analysis exposes damaging flow-on costs to the economy for which the Frontier modelling fails to account. Combined with Frontier’s extreme underestimation of the capital costs of building nuclear reactors, these costs accumulate to $4.3 – 5.2 trillion by 2050, 13-16 times the $331bn price tag for a nuclear Australia assumed by Frontier Economics. Read more

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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