Media

Think-tank Climate Energy Finance issued the predictions in its Green Capital Tsunami report released on Wednesday, which found Chinese investment in Australia had fallen to a decades-long low despite its record spending. The warnings come months after Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced an overhaul of foreign investment rules to take a “risk-based” approach to the sector, and more closely scrutinise investments in areas such as critical minerals. Read more

“Australia is never going to be able to compete on our own against the Chinese, the robotics, the artificial intelligence, the scale of their manufacturing, their phenomenal investments in research and development, all of that says we’ll never catch them,” says Tim Buckley. “But we don’t have to catch them; we can partner with them”. Read more

[On The West Australian]: Australia has the potential to tap into billions of dollars of renewable energy investments from China but only if it changes foreign investment policies and its approach to the superpower nation. Think-tank Climate Energy Finance issued the predictions in its Green Capital Tsunami report released on Wednesday, which found Chinese investment in Australia had fallen to a decades-long low despite its record spending. The warnings come months after Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced an overhaul of foreign investment rules to take a “risk-based” approach to the sector, and more closely scrutinise investments in areas such as critical minerals. Read more

[Story also republished on MSN, The Economic Times, Market Screener, ThePrint, U.S. News & World Report, Yahoo Finance UK, and so on]: Chinese firms’ overseas investments in clean energy technology projects have exceeded $100 billion since the start of 2023 as they aim to avoid tariffs in the U.S. and elsewhere, Australian research group Climate Energy Finance (CEF) said on Wednesday. China is the world’s biggest producer and exporter of products such as solar panels, lithium batteries and electric vehicles, with its investment, innovation and manufacturing capabilities leading the world by an “astonishing margin”, CEF said in a research report. Read more

As the world races to decarbonise, China is leading the way. It committed more than $145 billion (USD 100 billion) in outbound foreign direct investment since 2023 across decarbonisation sectors including solar, wind, batteries, grid, new energy vehicles, hydro and green hydrogen. Yet, as the momentum of China’s green capital tsunami accelerates, Australia finds itself at a critical juncture: will we ride this wave, or be left behind? Read more

Analysts at Climate Energy Finance, a Sydney-based research group, have recorded a “tsunami” of investment in renewable energy and transport electrification projects, calculating Chinese companies have committed $109.2bn in outbound FDI across 130 clean technology transactions since the start of 2023, according to corporate announcements and financial statements. Tim Buckley, CEF director, said China was not just exporting its cleantech manufacturing capacity surplus, but was increasingly exporting its technology, engineering, supply chain and financing capacities. Xuyang Dong, a CEF analyst, noted that the “dramatic” increase in overseas FDI coincided with plunging prices for many cleantech products in China, following years of scaled up domestic manufacturing. Prices for solar modules and batteries have halved this year. Read more

China’s world-leading clean energy companies are investing more abroad amid fierce domestic competition and trade tensions with rivals like the US, according to a report by Climate Energy Finance. “When Chinese firms build a production facility elsewhere, it brings its technology, expertise, capital, experience, as well as opportunities for expanding local labor markets and boosting other nations’ domestic energy transition,” said Xuyang Dong, an energy policy analyst and one of the report’s authors. Read more

Tim Buckley details CEF”s new report, ‘Green capital tsunami: China’s >$100 billion outbound cleantech investment since 2023 turbocharges global energy transition’. He notes if Australia is to enjoy the benefits of the billions China’s cleantech leaders are investing into solar, wind, batteries, EVs etc across the globe, speeding global decarbonisation, it must embrace and welcome partnership and maintain positive bilateral relations. Read more

Australia China Business Council chair David Olsson reflects on CEF’s new Green Capital Tsunami report, which tracks $100bn since 2023 in foreign investment by Chinese firms in sun, wind, EVs, batteries and other cleantech around the world, noting that Australia has untold potential to partner with China and attract investment from the world’s cleantech superpower – if we get the foreign investment rules right. Read more

[Republished from Bloomberg] China’s world-leading clean energy companies are investing more abroad amid fierce domestic competition and trade tensions with rivals like the US, according to a report by Climate Energy Finance. “When Chinese firms build a production facility elsewhere, it brings its technology, expertise, capital, experience, as well as opportunities for expanding local labor markets and boosting other nations’ domestic energy transition,” said Xuyang Dong, an energy policy analyst and one of the report’s authors. Read more

Tim told Alicia Barry on ABC TV’s Close of Business that Peter Dutton’s detail free nuclear power plan is costly, a waste of taxpayer’s money, and will delay Australia’s energy transition by 20 years. Read more

Two-thirds of all new solar and wind power projects are based in the country. But to wean industry off coal, Beijing needs to set up a real energy market. If things go Xi’s way over the coming years, that will no longer be the case. “Considering the significance of the scale of everything China does, reaching or exceeding almost every energy transition target it sets has far-reaching impacts for the climate and our global emissions reduction goals,” says Xuyang Dong, a China energy analyst at Sydney-based think-tank Climate Energy Finance. Spending levels across the sector will need to increase over the coming decades if China is to reach Xi’s dual carbon targets, says Dong, of CEF. That includes adding around 330GW of solar, 80GW of wind capacity and 4GW of nuclear to the grid every year until 2040 — numbers that are “significantly above the current run rate”.  Read more