Our work

Our new report shows that the surge of utility scale firmed renewables in NSW, alongside CER, means there will be no electricity supply reliability gap if Australia’s biggest coal clunker – Eraring power station – is closed on-time as planned in 2025. Read more

Financed emissions analyst, Nishtha Aggarwal, addresses the ANZ Board and Executive at the company’s FY2023 AGM. Read more

The latest Climate Energy Finance update – read our comprehensive End of Year wrap, including the 2023 Report Card on the government’s policy progress for boosting Australia’s transition to becoming a renewable energy superpower. Read more

Financed emissions analyst, Nishtha Aggarwal, addresses the Westpac Board and Executive at the company’s FY2023 AGM. Read more

Australia must back the right horse at COP28 to keep 1.5°C alive –  and that means 3X renewables by 2030 […] Read more

Capital acceleration and systems change are driving the decarbonisation of Australia’s $10tn housing stock. With 80% mortgage market share, Australia’s big banks are the main entry point to stimulating private finance. Banks need to go beyond ~60% emissions reduction targets to accelerate electrification and energy efficiency. Read more

CEF and our colleagues Smart Energy Council, Rewiring Australia, Climate Energy Finance, Climate Capital Forum, Diplomats for Climate Dr John Hewson AM and former President, Australian Conservation Foundation, Mara Bun release an open letter today countering mis/disinformation and demonstrating why nuclear is not viable as an option for Australia in the time needed to tackle climate and energy challenges, as the LNP attempts to delay and distract from the renewables revolution. Read more

CEF assesses the 2019 A$400m Woolworths Green Bond qualified under CBI’s Low Carbon Buildings criteria and find that it is difficult to credit CBI’s certification of these uses of proceeds as “contributing to climate mitigation” at all. Green bonds are designed to be a source of private capital mobilisation to achieve the massive uptick in clean energy investments required this decade. Given the volume of investment required to fund global decarbonisation, it is imperative that investors can identify credible emissions reduction opportunities to support. In our view, incorrectly conflating the notion that both assets and activities “contribute to” climate change mitigation creates a market distortion where the issue of real emissions reduction is obfuscated. Read more

China entered COP28 with greater climate ambition than anyone else in the room. China showcases its robust commitment to renewable energy with 82% of October’s 23.8GW capacity additions being zero emissions, primarily solar. Despite not joining the global pledge to triple renewable energy by 2030, China is on track to peak CO2 emissions soon. COP28 saw the start of the loss and damage fund, the total pledged amount to address loss and damage reached $656m, with Australia investing zero capitals. This is far from enough as the loss and damage in developing countries is already greater than $400bn per year and expected to grow. Read more

Australia’s transition to net zero will require a significant amount of private and public investment. It is important that financial markets are well placed to finance this transition and therefore support the Government’s emissions reductions target. To assist this financing, the Government has proposed an ambitious and comprehensive Sustainable Finance Strategy. The Strategy will help mobilise the private investment needed in coming decades, enable Australian firms to access the capital needed to finance their own transitions and take advantage of new opportunities that arise, and ensure that the financial opportunities and risks presented by climate change are identified and well managed. The Strategy also recognises that markets are increasingly focussed on sustainability issues that extend beyond climate change. Read more

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There is consensus from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) that, in order to maintain the 1.5 degree pathway set out in the Paris Agreement, a tripling of renewables capacity to 11,000 GW by 2030 is required. According to the IEA, it is the single most important driver to keep 1.5C within reach. 90% of the renewable capacity growth would be from solar and wind, with wind capacity rising threefold from 2022 to 2030, and solar capacity fivefold. Put simply, this goal would be out of reach absent China’s massive green industrialisation of the last decade, the unprecedented acceleration of which underpins the financial viability of, and the market conditions to make possible, the global renewables revolution we need to see by 2030 if we are to avert the worsening climate crisis. Read more