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To have a chance of combating climate change, the world needs President Xi Jinping’s administration to find a way to decarbonise China’s economy. The country, with 1.4bn people and a massive industrial economy still highly dependent on coal, is the world’s biggest polluter — accounting for nearly one-third of global carbon emissions. Xuyang Dong, an analyst with CEF, says rapid reductions in the cost of wind, solar and battery storage technologies have sparked a “dramatic” change in the economics underpinning China’s energy system. Dong and colleagues predict that coal will fade over the next 16 years from being a central pillar of China’s power sector to a “back-up role” ensuring stability during the transition to renewables. Read more

As CEF’s Tim Buckley and AM Jonson write in the AFR, the NSW government has left its green energy project pipeline languishing for years. Now it is charging a coal keeper tax instead, gouging consumers hundreds of millions of dollars to keep ageing coal wheezer Eraring open. Read more

Tim Buckley on ABC Illawarra, breaking down the NSW government’s justification for the extension of massive end of life coal clunker Eraring power station on the central coast, explaining how chronic delays in firmed renewables planning and approval processes in the state have been a key factor. (interview starts part way in to the clip). Read more

As the NSW government extends the Eraring power station for two years, Newcastle Herald notes that in In our report “The Lights Will Stay On: NSW Electricity Plan 2024-2030 Think tank Climate Energy Finance found an unprecedented number of clean energy projects had come online over the past six months, which more than offset the loss of 2880 megawatts of coal-fired generation from Eraring. This includes super battery projects at Munmorah, Eraring and Liddell. These batteries will act as shock absorbers during periods of fluctuating generation and demand.” Read more

The Minns government will pay Origin Energy up to $450 million over the next two years to extend the life of Australia’s largest coal-fired power station, Eraring, should the company opt in to a deal that NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey insisted was “not an act of corporate welfare”. But some experts, including many from the renewable energy sector, have criticised the government for agreeing to a deal they say is unnecessary. Tim Buckley, the head of pro-renewables think tank Clean Energy Finance, labelled it “yet another massive coal subsidy funded by electricity users in NSW”. Read more

Syndicated widely across 100+ mastheads via AAP | The life of Australia’s largest coal-fired power station will be extended for at least two years beyond its scheduled 2025 closure date. “This is essentially Coalkeeper 2.0 – yet another massive coal subsidy funded by electricity users in NSW” – Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley. Read more

The deal to extend the life of Australia’s largest coal generator – 2.88 GW – is being sold as necessary to “keep the lights on”, but there is no guarantee that it will do that. As Tim Buckley, from Climate Energy Finance, observes, Origin has “kindly offered” to share 20 per cent of any profits, capped at $40 million a year, but will share 80 per cent of the losses with the people of NSW, capped at $225 million per year. “This is essentially Coalkeeper 2.0 – yet another massive coal subsidy funded by electricity users in NSW,” he said. Read more

Climate Energy Finance’s Tim Buckley joins Kieran Gilbert on Sky News to discuss the extension of the life of Eraring coal-fired power station. Read more

Australia’s transition to renewable energy appears to have been dealt a blow, with the nation’s biggest coal-fired power plant to be kept open longer than expected. Read more

Sun-soaked Australia’s lofty renewable energy ambitions were given a harsh reality check on Thursday, as looming electricity shortfalls delayed the long-awaited shutdown of the country’s largest coal-fired power plant. In many cases, nuclear makes sense for energy-deficient countries that had no domestic renewable options, such as Japan, energy analyst Tim Buckley told AFP. “Nuclear has no future in Australia,” he said. “Australia has not continuously built it, we have none of the skillset, none of the engineering, and none of the capacity for nuclear.” Read more

The Modi-led “Make in India” campaign “has been an own goal for the Indian people”, Tim Buckley of Climate Energy Finance (CEF) tells Carbon Brief, pointing out that both solar module and battery costs have halved globally over the past year. He says trade barriers have made solar more expensive to install and that India risks “being left behind” in the renewable energy race. He adds: “India has failed to understand the magnitude of the tech advances involved led by China; putting up trade barriers has deprived India. Modi has regularly talked about India building 50GW of solar in a year, but has averaged less than a third of that and has fail[ed] to deliver on it five years in a row.” Read more

New South Wales is not on track to meet climate change targets, according to the government’s own environmental database. The Climate Energy Finance director and analyst, Tim Buckley, said the Eraring subsidy would cost the taxpayer $150m a year. He said: We are putting band aids on end of life coal assets instead of investing in the solutions to permanent low cost zero emission solutions that Australia and NSW desperately needs to see approved. This is a race to the top and yet the NSW government in 2024 is now going in the wrong direction. We call on them to reallocate planning resources to approving the projects we critically need to solve the climate crisis.” Read more