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A new report from Climate Energy Finance has warned that surging outbound investment into mining and processing assets across Africa and South America is reshaping global trade flows and eroding Australia’s long-held edge in key commodities including lithium and iron ore. The report finds China has deployed more than US$120 billion ($168 billion) into upstream mining and processing projects since 2023, securing supply chains and building in-country refining capacity across partner nations. Read more

China has committed more than US$120 billion in direct investment in overseas mining and mineral processing projects since 2023 – covering the likes of lithium and rare earth metals – with that spending boosting clean energy usage in developing countries, a think tank said on Wednesday. It was helping to advance the “zero-emissions world economy” by offering mineral inputs for solar equipment, wind power, electric vehicles and industrial decarbonisation offshore, the Australian think tank Climate Energy Finance (CEF) said in a report titled “Raw Power”. Read more

Via AAP in Canberra Times and 100+ mastheads Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley said its closure was a consequence of China’s strategic diversification to boost critical minerals and clean tech capacity. “That is a serious problem,” he told AAP. “We will stay a dig and ship country if we can’t actually get other countries to value the geopolitical stability that we offer.” Read more

New CEF report warns Australia’s dig-and-ship economy faces a clear and present threat as China systematically diversifies away from Australian supply across lithium, iron ore and critical minerals. Read more

New CEF report maps China’s vertically integrated green industrial strategy, and finds resource-rich nations increasingly forming win-win partnerships with Beijing. Read more

In China’s vast deserts, its green energy revolution is in plain view. Solar panels stretch across the nation’s sun-beaten north, helping power an economy that is embracing renewables at speed. China is adopting green energy at a scale hard to imagine for many other countries, installing 446 gigawatts of it in 2025 — more than the rest of the world combined, according to Australian think tank Climate Energy Finance. Read more

The war in the Middle East has sent Australia’s fuel prices soaring. And people are worried that if the battle between the US-Israel and Iran continues for another month – Australia may have to begin rationing fuel. Already, drivers are panic buying, stockpiling and some country petrol stations are running dry. Global oil supplies are under threat as Iran attacks tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. Read more

Michael West is joined by Tim Buckley for a live discussion on energy security, the shift to new energy, and the economic impacts of war. With 35 years of financial markets experience across Australian, Asian and global equities, on both the buy side and sell side, Tim brings deep insight into how conflict, fossil fuel dependence, and energy transition are reshaping markets and national security. Read more

Under a model put forward by Climate Energy Finance, diesel tax exemptions could be capped at $50 million but businesses could still claim rebates beyond the cap if they reinvested the funds into electrification. The Australian Council of Trade Unions and the Labor Environmental Action Network have signalled support for a less-generous scheme, as has Andrew Forrest’s mining company Fortescue. The iron ore miner is presently a beneficiary of the credits but has set itself Read more

Beijing is shifting from speed to quality — and the implications for global climate capital are profound. But is the ambition sufficient? Chinese Premier Li Qiang delivered the Government Work Report for the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) at the opening session of the National People’s Congress this week, laying out the most consequential economic and energy blueprint of any nation on earth. Read more

Federal fuel tax credits have come under renewed scrutiny as the Commonwealth pursues budget savings and faster emissions cuts in line with its climate targets. Costing roughly $11 billion a year and no longer tied to the costs of maintaining roads, critics argue it is too big a fiscal burden and is keeping users hooked on a fuel that’s emissions-intensive and vulnerable to supply chain shocks, as exposed by the Middle East conflict. Under a model put forward by Climate Energy Finance, diesel tax exemptions could be capped at $50 million but businesses could still claim rebates beyond the cap if they reinvested the funds into electrification. Read more

The scam is the SA Government’s largesse of prepaying for the gas, which allows Santos to invest in the Moomba Central Optimisation pipeline, virtually guaranteeing Santos shareholders risk-free returns of up to 25%. That’s Santos’ own assessment of the deal, where the SA Government is locking in a decade of gas offtake from the Central Fields project in the Cooper Basin. But wait, there is more, Santos also brags the development lowers scope 1 emissions “by over 40,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per year”. According to Tim Buckley of Climate Energy Finance, “That’s a big number, until one compares it to Santos’ 2025 Scope 1 and 2 Net emissions of 3,810,000 tonnes” – or 1.04%. Read more