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The now six-week-long conflict in the Middle East continues, massively disrupting global energy supplies with no end in sight. This underscores the energy security risk to Australia of its extreme dependency on imported oil and resulting exposure to international fossil fuel shocks in an increasingly geopolitically unstable world. The significant implications for national economic resilience are already apparent, with a fuel supply crunch and elevated foreign oil prices driving a cost of living crisis, inflationary pressures and surging interest rates here. At the time of writing, the Hormuz Strait, the critical chokepoint for 20 per cent of the world’s oil, including the Asian supply chains we rely on, remains blocked. Read more

“I think EVs are inevitable and this war in Iran has really given everyone the wake up call to say, hang on wouldn’t it be nice to not be suffering every week filling up your petrol vehicle,” he said. “Its money that you’d be far better off actually paying five bucks for a charger or nothing by charging at home on a slow charger from your rooftop solar. “Now, the emphasis has to be on the government’s role to make sure we bring the whole of the Australian economy and people along, not just the privileged half.” Mr Buckley said he hopes to see reforms that provide financial incentives to electrify and decarbonise energy needs for transport, be it freight, passenger vehicles, mining and then at a slower pace for farmers and agriculture. Read more

Tim Buckley, founder and director at Climate Energy Finance, said the recent fuel hike has been another reminder of how vulnerable the Australian economy is to ongoing fossil fuel disruptions and wars in the Middle East. “The importance of energy, independence, energy, security was brought to the national conscience about three to four years ago when Putin invaded Ukraine and we saw the global gas price, coal and oil price go up,” he said. Read more

Hot on the heels of a $10m capital raise, a local start-up is tapping investors again as it looks to play a leading role in the development of Australia’s fledgling green steel industry. DryFlow Magnetics is gearing up for new trials of its “dry magnetic separation” process, described as a potentially “game-changing” mineral processing and recovery technology. Development of the technology has been backed by grant funding from the CSIRO and the state government’s Seed-Start program. In a report released in November, think tank Climate Energy Finance suggested DryFlow’s technology could play a key role in unlocking South Australia’s nearly 20 billion tonnes of magnetite resources, which were key to Whyalla’s transformation into a green iron and steel hub. Read more

In Australia, the federal government – as well as some states – have shown how quickly change can happen in the right conditions. Tim Buckley is Director of the think-tank Climate Energy Finance. He highlights that Australia’s government has invested billions of dollars – both in capital and budget support – in decarbonisation and electrification since the beginning of 2023, to try to leverage public money to attract private investment and capital. This has fed into the positive momentum in Australia. For example, the government’s programme to help people afford and install home batteries for solar PV systems has been expanded as a result of its success. Read more

Bruce Hardy, executive director of Energy Futures, which hosted a ‘Freight Forward’ summit in Canberra two weeks ago to advocate for greater incentives and fewer roadblocks to heavy vehicle electrification, says it doesn’t make sense to spend $10 billion annually “to pad the bottom line of mining operators”. Although farmers are grateful for it, about eight or nine multinational miners are by far the largest beneficiaries. One suggestion (from Fortescue Metals Group and Climate Energy Finance) is to cap the fuel tax credit at $50 million in any year, which would leave it intact for most farmers and small miners while limiting it for large miners. Read more

In March 2026, Australian unions called for Australians to get a more equitable share of the massive windfall profits that are now flowing to multinational oil and gas corporations profiting from the Trump Administration’s renewal of resource imperialism. The ACTU has urged the Federal Government and Treasurer Jim Chalmers to replace the flawed petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) with a 25 per cent revenue-based export levy on the sale of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Australia. This is hardly a radical proposition. The call has been supported by shadow minister for industry Andrew Hastie. Last week saw Matt Comyn, the CEO of Commonwealth Bank – Australia’s largest bank – throw his support behind a new exported gas levy gas or PRRT reform, highlighting that the time has now come for the nation to profit from its vast gas reserves, and urging the Albanese Government to ‘push the boat out’ and publicly back reform. Read more

As experts such as Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley, along with independent MP Monique Ryan, pointed out in response, such technology has previously only been employed by Nazi Germany and South Africa, in desperate response to sanctions. It is inordinately expensive to do and is very emissions intensive. But what of the suggestion of mining and refining more oil? The first problem, says Greg Bourne, of the Climate Council, is that Australia does not have much in the way of proven oil reserves. He notes that when Canavan was the resources minister in the previous Coalition government, he issued exploration permits in the Great Australian Bight. Several oil majors took them up, then handed them back, because they were not viable. Read more

Highlights The Business Leaders Forum at Boao, China – China’s stated position remains one of full commitment to electrification and decarbonisation. PRRT Reform – The ACTU continues to call for a flat 25% tax on Australian LNG to replace the The Petroleum Resource Rent Tax, with the objective of capturing windfall profits and generating tax revenues of up to $10bn to fund energy poverty relief across Australia. Accelerating Capital Deployments – Treasurer Chalmers’ Single Front Door pilot is now operational. Main Story – CEF Op-Ed in The Energy: Lessons for Australia from the Global Energy Crisis Read more

The war had reinforced the need for energy independence and could drive strong growth in electrification and decarbonisation this year, said Tim Buckley, director of the Climate Energy Finance think tank in Sydney. “I would expect a surge in China’s battery and electric vehicle exports,” he added Read more

“Australia is [not] producing anywhere near enough of our own oil or diesel to actually sustain our economy. So I find it absolutely hypocritical … that the party of ‘small government’ is advocating for massive ongoing taxpayer subsidies to invest in new white elephants that would take at least a decade to be built,” Buckley says. “They do nothing for Australian energy security in the next decade, at a time when [electric vehicle] technology and battery technology is probably the most profound disruption globally in 2026 and we could be replacing $50 billion a year of annual diesel and oil imports with home grown, clean, low cost, deflationary Australian energy.” Read more

Investor Front Door was launched in September last year, aiming to streamline the approvals process and fast-track projects of national significance. Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance (CEF), told Carbon Pulse he was supportive of the initiative and hoped that it became permanent, noting “it’s taking a long time to get from announcement to substance”. “We’ve got to move at double the speed” to decarbonise, he said. Read more