Media

Tim Buckley comments for this Washington Post feature on China’s extraordinary energy transition progress and the implications for emissions. Read more

Tim Buckley shares his insights in a 15 minute video presentation about geopolitical energy landscape. There are geopolitical headwinds to decarbonisation in the U.S., but that just leaves more scope for a China-EU race to the top. Australia needs to collaborate with our number one trade partner. Read more

In the light of Trump’s election in the US, Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley framed China’s dominance in clean technology manufacturing as an opportunity rather than a threat. “China wants to partner with us,” Buckley said, noting that Australia’s status as China’s leading trading partner provides a strong foundation for technology transfer and manufacturing collaboration. Read more

What does a green superpower look like? A certain command and control economy to Australia’s north is the model despite its many current flaws. “China is moving a million times faster than we are,” CEO of Climate Energy Finance, Tim Buckley, said. “China installs 24 gigawatts of wind and solar every month. That’s what they did last month. That’s what they’ve done on average in the last 20 months. We do about six gigs a year. “So they do in one week what we take a year to do. “The idea that we’re the superpower is a delusion. “We’re in a race and we’re not winning it. “But we do have the potential to be a renewable energy superpower and mining is going to be how we get that.” Read more

Trump is expected to reduce the US’ commitment to his predecessor’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act, which funnelled billions of dollars into clean energy. “This opens up strategic opportunities for cooperation for many countries, including both Australia and India,” said Tim Buckley, director of the Sydney-based Climate Energy Finance think tank. Read more

Through initiatives like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China is strategically investing in renewable energy projects across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. These partnerships include funding solar farms, wind power plants, and hydropower projects, enabling developing nations to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Tim Buckley, chief of Climate Energy Finance, highlights how China’s financial and technological contributions are crucial for advancing global decarbonization goals. Read more

Green energy success is helping Beijing push back against western political pressure. Xuyang Dong, a China energy policy analyst at Climate Energy Finance, an Australian think-tank, argues that China’s renewable electricity generation, backed by huge investment in the power grid and energy storage, means coal will increasingly only be used as an emergency back-up before, “inevitably”, being phased out. Read more

The election of Donald Trump – a felon and climate crisis denier – as president of the United States comes as a stroke of bitter irony after recent floods exacerbated by global warming smashed parts of the southeast US – Hurricane Milton alone is likely to cost up to US$50 billion – and given the escalating intensity of wildfires and other natural disasters taking a huge toll on America and other countries. Trump’s “drill baby, drill” energy policies are a disaster for the US, intergenerational equity and global efforts to mitigate the climate crisis. Read more

As part of the USSC Debate Papers series, the Centre invited Xuyang Dong, China energy policy analyst at Climate Energy Finance, and Noah Gordon, acting co-director of the Sustainability, Climate and Geopolitics program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, to discuss whether the United States, Australia and other like-minded allies and partners should cooperate or compete with China when it comes to fighting climate change. Read more

[On Caixin] China has been a world leader in investing in cleantech outside its border, too. Between January 2023 and September this year, Chinese state-owned and private companies committed more than $100 billion in foreign direct investment in relevant industries, according to the CEF. The Australia-based think tank analyzed projects that were proposed, under construction, or completed during the period in a report it released on Oct. 2. “It is a significant number considering that there are no other countries who have invested so heavily into cleantech across the world like China has,” said Dong Xuyang, an analyst of China’s energy policies at CEF. Read more

Tim Buckley, told the Financial Times that “China was not just exporting its clean-tech manufacturing capacity surplus but was increasingly exporting its technology, engineering, supply chain and financing capacities.” Read more

Tim Buckley, from Climate Energy Finance, says the IEA report is still likely to be underestimating the deployment of renewables. “Each year the IEA upgrades their renewable energy estimates, having underestimated the deflation of solar and BESS, and underestimating the technology improvements in cleantech as well – wind, solar, BESS and EVs,” Buckley says. “As such, the IEA’s expectation of peaks in all types of fossil fuel energy types is likely still too conservative. This is great news, as clearly global scientists have likewise underestimated the compounding impacts of climate change. “China clearly leads the world in both the manufacturing, domestic installation and export of all cleantech aspects. Read more