Our work

Ahead of gas giant and mega-polluter Woodside Energy’s AGM, we estimate the multibillion dollar carbon liability the company will cop under the critically important Safeguard Mechanism reforms if it fails to abate its emissions and invest in energy transition solutions in line with the climate science, investor pressure and accelerating global momentum Read more

CEF’S Matt Pollard takes a close look at global EV sales in the first quarter of 2023, and finds the industry is booming off the back of a massive acceleration in decarbonisation momentum globally. Read more

CEF’s Tim Buckley told UBS analysts of Australia’s potential to be a renewable energy superpower, given abundant critical minerals, scope to value-add and minimal supply chain risk. Read more

This month, the Government of India announced exciting plans to treble renewable energy tenders to 50GW pa so as to add 250GW of RE by 2027/28. Brookfield of Canada also announced a US$1bn investment in Avaada Energy, which has aggressive solar expansion plans, following a number of significant injections of global capital into Indian renewables this year. We examine the strong momentum building after 3 years of inaction in the country’s energy transformation – traction which now requires government policy ambition and consistency to sustain. Read more

Our op ed on a new report released today by the Clean Energy Investor Group and Investor Group on Climate Change, flagging that Australian governments need to collectively lift collaboration with private investors, and derisk the electricity sector to crowd-in private capital at the scale and speed required to meet energy and climate objectives. Read more

As the federal government’s Resources and Energy Quarterly released today projects lithium export earnings of $18.6bn in 22/23, CEF’s Matt Pollard reviews growth in and investments by key Australian producers as we start to leverage our once in a century opportunity to lead the world in value-added critical minerals. Read more

As US giant Albermarle swoops on burgeoning local lithium producer Liontown with a takeover bid, CEF guest contributor Owen Evans and CEF’s Tim Buckley recommend that the Foreign Investment Review Board and Treasurer Jim Chalmers take a hard look at the national interest implications and reject the bid. Read more

We review the Safeguard Mechanism reforms which have finally passed parliament, as a new report reveals the methane bomb at the heart of the SGM; our review of Macquarie’s efforts in decarbonising its financing; we take a look at the China “drums of war” rhetoric in the context of the threat of climate change; the latest on Adani and more Read more

Tim Buckley speaks at the University of Sydney to the key drivers and themes of the accelerating energy transition, including policy and legislative vehicles such as the transformative Inflation Reduction Act in the US, and the EU’s Net Zero Industry Act. Read more

The deal struck between the federal government, the Greens and the Teals today to get the Safeguard Mechanism legislation through parliament, to come into effect from 1 July, is a significant step forward on the nation’s decarbonisation pathway. Overall it enhances the ambition, public accountability, integrity and impact of the mechanism legislation initially proposed by the government, and while still far from perfect, it is a major advance on the state of play as recently as last week. Read our new analysis. Read more

In this presentation to UBS, Tim Buckley looks at key global energy transition themes and drivers including RE price deflation, pricing emissions, market returns, China’s leadership on decarbonisation, key international policy and funding initiatives e.g. the US IRA and EU NZIA (Net Zero Industry Act), India’s PLI, South Korea and Japan’s GX Roadmap, and Australia’s opportunity to position itself as a pre-export value-adding critical minerals superpower. Read more

Fifth in CEF’s climate finance analyses series of Australia’s Big 5 banks, Nishtha Aggarwal reviews the entirety of Macquarie Group’s climate impact across the Group’s four business lines, Macquarie Asset Management (MAM), Macquarie Capital (MacCap), Banking and Financial Services (BFS), and Commodities and Global Markets (CGM). We find The Group’s combined global 107GW portfolio of clean energy is unrivalled among major Australian financial institutions, but its dominance in conventional energy markets undermines the Group’s climate commitments by contributing to global warming above a 1.5 degree pathway. Read more