Our work

We take a close look at Budget 2023/24, finding the new $4bn in funding around renewables leaves us short of the capital needed to position Australia as a cleantech superpower and respond to the US IRA, as new figures from China show a staggering surge in RE installs Read more

Tim Buckley’s presentation to the board of Argo Investments takes a deep dive into global energy transition, looking at major policy initiatives and capital inflows accelerating decarbonisation in the US, China, India, the EU, Canada and Korea, with a focus the implications for Australian policy and investment. Read more

The Federal Budget is a mixed bag for climate and energy with a serious case of underreach on fixing the failed PRRT gas tax, but some good policy and funding progress on a National Net Zero Authority, energy bill relief and home and business electrification, and measures to respond to the global race to renewables, such as $2bn for a green Hydrogen Headstart program – all in the context of a massive surprise $4.2bn surplus. However, we need to see more fiscal ambition to respond to game-changing international policy and funding reforms such as the US Inflation Reduction Act that are turbocharging global energy transition. Read more

China continues to lead the world in all aspects of the global development of zero emissions industries of the future, both in terms of domestic deployment and manufacturing supply chains, both for domestic and export purposes. To meet increasing electricity demand, China is deploying both more coal power plants and more renewables. However, renewables are now leading China’s newly added power capacity. Read more

An exciting report has emerged that India’s draft new National Electricity Policy (NEP) has proposed that India stop building of new coal-fired power plants beyond those already under construction. Without getting too excited preemptively, this strategic shift is potentially a critical, globally significant milestone in decarbonisation. Read more

A presentation by Satya Tanner, Australian CEO, Lautec, to the Smart Energy Council Summit, looks at how Australia can build resilience in the national climate economy as a matter of national security in a global context of increasing risk across multiple intersecting fronts. Read more

China Energy Policy Analyst Xuyang Dong argues: “Australia is being remade into an active and helpful middle power in its region with its own agency, constructively and strategically navigating its presence in the geopolitics of growing China-US rivalry.” Read more

Tim Buckley’s presentation to the Smart Energy Council conference looks at the massive global acceleration of decarbonisation, including via the funding and policy reforms of Biden’s IRA which has turbocharged the transition in the US. What are the implications for the imminent Federal Budget if Australia to position itself as a global leader in the new cleantech world economy? Read more

In this submission, we argue that the currently patently redundant and inadequate methodology for assessing methane emissions from coal mines be modernised to incorporate the latest science and new methods, including real time public disclosure of monitoring, reporting and verification. Read more

Woodside Energy risks lumping investors with a multibillion dollar bill, says CEF director Tim Buckley. That’s the cost of meeting measures in the newly legislated Federal climate policy, the Safeguard Mechanism. Read more

CEF’S Matt Pollard updates his analysis of global EV sales in the first quarter of 2023, to include newly released figures from VW, as momentum accelerates globally. Read more

CEF analysis shows gas giant and its joint venture partners will have to spend billions to comply with newly legislated Safeguard Mechanism. Also: Australia must catch up on EV policy; lithium updates; India lifts ambitions on renewables; investors urge $400bn boost for decarbonisation. Read more