Media

The government is expanding its Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) to drive the development of new renewable energy projects. “This policy alone will add effectively double that on-grid capacity over the next four or five years now,” said Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance. Read more

Tim Buckley, director at Climate Energy Finance, discusses the key issues at stake for the upcoming Origin Energy’s shareholders vote. He speaks with Bloomberg’s Haidi Stroud-Watts on “Bloomberg Daybreak: Australia.” Tim told Bloomberg that it is very important for Australia to drive the decarbonisation transformation of our economy at speed and scale required. That requires hundreds of billions of dollars of investment, hence why he supports Brookfield’s bid for Origin as they have the capital to drive the decarbonisation and is willing to do so. Read more

CEF Tim Buckley and Annemarie Jonson wrote: Energy minister Chris Bowen’s boost to the Capacity investment Scheme (CIS) is a game-changer, expanding federal investment to underwrite a massive target of 32GW of new storage and renewable infrastructure, a huge step-change in national decarbonisation ambition and to be roundly applauded. This is exactly the kind of bold, landmark federal policy and investment ambition we need to rapidly transform Australia’s energy market whilst ensuring grid reliability and restoring energy affordability. Read more

Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance and former stockbroker, agrees with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that the public benefit from Brookfield’s ambitious plan outweighs competition concerns raised by its ownership of Victorian poles and wires business AusNet Services. “At the end of the day, we do have an energy crisis, a cost of living crisis and a climate crisis. And all three of them can be solved by unlocking a huge amount of capital at speed and scale in alignment with building new capacity,” Buckley tells The Australian Financial Review. Read more

CEF partner and advisory board member, Blair Palese, founder of the Climate Capital Forum, on how Prime Minister Anthony Albanese being on the ground at APEC shows that Australia wants to be at the table with the other alliance members as they navigate global decarbonisation, and that we are committed to working with our regional neighbours in the Indo-Pacific Read more

As Tim Buckley asks: What kind of game is AustralianSuper, the country’s biggest super fund, playing with Origin Energy? It is shaping up to scuttle a bid by Canadian fund manager Brookfield et al to acquire Australia’s largest power company, gentailer Origin Energy, and transition it to renewables and storage with a ~$30bn investment – a mammoth capital injection that will be transformative for Australian decarbonisation. What is AustralianSuper offering as its alternative plan? Higher electricity prices, slower decarbonisation and more climate destruction? If it kills the deal, will it step up and guarantee a $30bn commitment to decarbonising Origin? If not, why not? If it has no legitimate answer to these questions, it should get out of the way. Read more

CEF partner and advisory board member, Blair Palese, founder of the Climate Capital Forum, makes a powerful case for Australia to step up its transition investment ambition ahead of COP and in light of the US Inflation Reduction Act. Read more

Oped written by CEF’s China Energy Policy Analyst Xuyang Dong and Ember’s climate strategy advisor Chris Wright on China’s recent methane emissions reduction action plan. China’s recent methane action plan is a game-changer in the global effort to combat emissions. With commitments in its 2026-2030 Five-Year Plan, China is taking a lead in the methane reduction race. This announcement underscores Australia’s lag in implementing a clear methane action plan, despite being a significant emitter. As COP28 approaches, the diplomatic significance and China’s track record of exceeding targets highlight the urgent need for global methane reduction. Read more

Treasurer Jim Chalmers warned Australia could fail to meet its emissions targets without drastic change, and green refining of minerals before shipping overseas could be part of the solution. Tim Buckley told ABC that we need to get out of the mentality of Australia’s traditional dig-and-ship model. Now is the perfect opportunity to permanently rebuild manufacturing and refining capacity onshore. And we need to move faster with more ambition. We should build out capacity within the coming decade instead of 2050, before other countries have already established their own supply chains, or we will permanently miss out. Read more

Tim Buckley told ABC TV that we need to find alternatives to our dig and ship model, eg. do more value-adding refining of our resources onshore. By doing so, Australia can help our trade partners by exporting embodied decarbonisation. Buckley also said Jim Chalmers’ major address on Australia’s green energy and energy transition materials opportunity was overly cautious, and Australia’s response to the IRA should be tailored by Australia’s context and the huge scale of opportunity we have here to lead the world. Read more

The Albanese government has dumped plans to release a comprehensive US-style green energy industrial policy this year. Instead of meeting a pledge in last May’s budget to develop a plan before Christmas, Labor ministers are now working to a revised timeline that would see a more comprehensive response to Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) around the 2024 budget, in about six months. Tim Buckley told AFR that “they need to provide a policy framework. At the end of the day, when America throws $1 trillion on the table in subsidies, and you’re competing against China, when you leave it to the free market you miss out.”“We need to get more projects off the ground, faster.” “The government is moving in the right direction but not fast enough, and they don’t have the political mandate to act with the courage they really need.” Read more

Victoria’s State Electricity Commission (SEC) has been reintroduced in a move that is hoped will crowd-in investment into renewables in the state. Tim Buckley told FS Sustainability that some are concerned that public capital may crowd out private capital. “The key challenge that the SEC has to actually work to crowd in private capital,” Buckley said. “I think that risk is real, but it’s more than outweighed by the benefits to the people of Victoria.” He sees renewables as a “solution to the cost-of-living crisis, the energy crisis and the climate crisis… More competition means more supply and lower prices.” Read more