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The idea that the state purse might receive a higher rate when prices surge is particularly sensitive for coalminers because they are in a sector that may not have many booms left. “Structural decline in one of Australia’s largest fossil fuel export commodities coupled with rising unit costs are the factors driving these investment and operating decisions, not Queensland’s nation-leading royalty scheme,” says Matt Pollard, an analyst at clean energy consultancy Climate Energy Finance. Read more

Tim Buckley, a former investment banker and the director of Climate Energy Finance, describes Adani’s finances as an “extremely complex, opaque corporate structure”. Read more

Stiell’s comments come as Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce and One Nation’s Pauline Hanson push a private member’s bill to scrap Australia’s 2050 net zero target, exposing divisions within the Coalition. Meanwhile, the Albanese government is preparing to set its 2035 target next year, due in September, a decision widely viewed as a test of whether Australia intends to match the pace of global decarbonisation or remain tethered to its fossil fuel export model. Tim Buckley, founder of Climate Energy Finance, said the 2035 target represents Australia’s chance to align with the global clean energy transition and secure long-term economic and geopolitical benefits. Read more

Adani’s accounts show that even though revenue has been rising from the Carmichael operations, it has enough interest on related-party loans and other expenses to keep reporting losses. ATO disclosures for the Abbot Point terminal business, now named North Queensland Export Terminal Holdings, between 2013 and 2023 showed just one record of the Adani entity paying tax, which was for $4m in 2017-18. The port regularly generates annual income of between $300m and $550m. Tim Buckley, a former investment banker and the director of Climate Energy Finance, says that given Adani has not paid tax during recent periods of surging coal prices, it probably never will. Read more

Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance, a pro-renewables energy analysis group, said the Albanese government had been ignoring its responsibility for the emissions caused by the fossil fuel it sells overseas. “The Albanese government has acted on scope one through the safeguard mechanism [which forces industry emission cuts],” Buckley said. “They’re acting on scope two by decarbonising our electricity system. But they’re failing to act on scope three – that’s what the Woodside decision highlighted. Read more

“Griffin Coal continues to operate at below gross cashflow breakeven, such that it is struggling to pay for equipment maintenance and the interest let alone have scope to repay the capital on $A600-800 million of debts outstanding against the local Australian entity,” energy analyst Tim Buckley wrote at the time. Read more

The projected deflation of Australia’s export earnings is a lens to threats to our future economic resilience and security, while our key trading partners accelerate their economic decarbonisation and deliver on their Paris Agreement commitments. It is a stark reminder of the need to increase our economic complexity, to diversify from fossil fuels, which face inevitable structural decline, and to prioritise value adding our resources. The projections underscore the strategic importance, for example, to pivot to green iron production rather than shipping rocks of ore. Read more

Dartbrook Mine, an underground thermal coal joint venture in the Hunter Valley, had sat empty since 2006 until it was revived at the end of last year. Its owner, ASX-listed Australian Pacific Coal, last month failed to meet its obligations for a $174 million loan to key backer Vitol, a Singapore-based commodities giant. Australian Pacific Coal has now called in administrators from Deloitte and requested an “immediate” trading suspension on the stock market. Vitol has since appointed receivers, insolvency firm FTI Consulting, to claw back its millions. Read more

Climate Energy Finance founder Tim Buckley said adopting nuclear power would also force Australian industries to rely on coal-powered electricity and gas for longer and could undermine existing investments in renewable energy projects. “This will further erode our manufacturing sector’s competitiveness,” he said. Read more

This damaging policy reversal undermines what was formerly Queensland’s national leadership in building out large-scale renewable energy and storage, and its record uptake of rooftop solar, just as the climate emergency escalates and in the context of a national cost of living crisis driven by skyrocketing fossil fuel energy bills. Read more

Climate Energy Finance founder Tim Buckley, who was not involved in the report, said the death of coal has been called many times but now the numbers are showing the “beginning of the end”, particularly as the Chinese solar and wind juggernaut continues. “It’s going to be a slow death for coal,” he said. “It’s not a decline, it’s a plateau, so it’s not going to be rapid.” The implications for Australia “are profound”, Buckley said, with the country’s economic policy seemingly built on the assumption its Asian trading partners would make no serious efforts to transition their economies to renewables. “We don’t as a country realise the magnitude of the threat to our key exports today and our government continues to sleepwalk on the resources curse,” he said. Read more

This week, the global climate movement is in mourning. Under Trump’s reign of executive orders, not only has the US out of the Paris Agreement, but they’ve bulldozed a $300bln wind energy project pipeline and promised to desecrate the incredible climate progress under the IRA. Already, sceptical commentators are calling on Australia’s political contenders to follow suit, abandon climate concerns and double down on ‘bread and butter’ issues ahead of this election. But what they fail to realise, is the incredible opportunity this now presents for Australia. Read more