Media

The scale of getting Australia to reach net zero emissions by 2050 is colossal. A new report says Australia’s electricity grid will need to triple in size and trillions of dollars will need to be spent, and gas-fired generation capacity will need to double in the coming decades, if the lights are to stay on Read more

Melbourne, Queensland and Princeton University researchers from the Net Zero Project say gas-fired power capacity will be required for some time yet. However, CEF’s Tim Buckley says gas-fired capacity and output should not be confused. There will be a progressive shift from gas base-load power generation to gas peakers to enhance reliability as the transition to renewables and battery storage accelerates. Read more

Tim Buckley comments on the new CEIG report which says private capital investment of over $420bn is needed to decarbonise the NEM in line with 1.5 degrees. The scenario is ambitious but credible, said Tim Buckley”, “the global landscape has changed so fundamentally in the last 9 months, the Australian landscape has changed with new government, such that we now have state and federal alignment but also at the global level, and the US Inflation Reduction Act is a global gamechanger.” Read more

Reflecting on CEIG’s Decarbonising the NEM report, “Tim Buckley said financial resources were already at hand to but investors needed lawmakers to create confidence so they could plan. ‘We now need the right policy aspiration to unlock already existing technology solutions and leverage our transformative, once in a hundred year decarbonisation investment opportunity’. Read more

Citing Tim Buckley’s commentary on Adani Group, Himal Southasia magazine panellists look at the conglomerate’s long reach – from energy to transport and logistics, from India to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and Myanmar – which says as much about the conglomerate as it does about power, politics and diplomacy in the region. Read more

The Australian Government long ago identified green hydrogen as a major export opportunity but recent global developments could send the industry from hero to zero – a fact widely acknowledged by the industry’s leaders. A decade of investment is at stake. Read more

Demolition will represent the end of an era in the Hunter region. The power station’s closure also holds great national significance as a blueprint to what the future could hold for Australia’s remaining 18 coal-fired power stations. Read more

Among big miners exiting the coal business, Glencore is the exception, effectively arguing that holding on to its big thermal coal business is not only economically preferable but morally superior. Read more

Our op ed on the new report released today by CEIG and IGCC on what investors need to accelerate the energy transition – collaboration from government with policy and investment to derisk decarbonisation of the electricity sector and attract private capital. Read more

Australia stands to be a massive beneficiary of the global decarbonisation race – if it gets the policy and investments right, says Tim Buckley. The good news, says Buckley, is that alongside domestic government policy, global investment giants like Brookfield are increasingly crowding in. Read more

As the Guardian reports the finding of the federal Resources and Energy Quarterly that export earnings from lithium are set to match thermal coal within 5 years, Tim Buckley said public support for private investment in renewably powered refining operations should come from the $15bn national reconstruction fund and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the government’s ‘green bank’. “The massive opportunities emerging for Australia from the accelerating global energy transition are crystal clear,” he said. Read more

In this analysis, Tim Buckley looks at Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ call to back the FIRB recommendation to reject a Chinese-linked fund’s increased equity stake in emerging Australian critical minerals developer, Northern Minerals, in the context of Australia’s massive and burgeoning opportunity to lead the world in value-added critical minerals. Read more