Media

Queensland is not just undergoing an energy transition, but a complete transformation from a legacy petrostate to a renewable energy superpower. Its staggering momentum has lessons for other states and the federal government. The state is a case study on the catalysing impact of public capital expenditure in “crowding-in” private investment to energy transition. As Climate Energy Finance’s new report released this week details, Queensland’s nation-leading investment in transmission, large-scale low-cost renewable energy and consumer energy resources (CERs) is resulting in a tidal wave of public and private capital. Read more

With Laura Tingle on ABC TV’s 7.30, Tim Buckley supports calls by Rod Sims and Ross Garnaut of The Superpower Institute for the federal government to leverage Australia’s generational opportunity be become a zero-emissions trade and investment leader – and for a Carbon Solutions Levy to invest in the clean energy transition. Read more

Our full page Canberra Times op ed with John Grimes, CEO of the Smart Energy Council, Rewiring Australia’s Dr Saul Griffiths, Blair Palese of the Climate Capital Forum, Dr John Hewson and Mara Bun: The prospect of nuclear power generation in Australia is now a live debate. There are a number of barriers that make nuclear unviable as a solution for Australia’s energy transition in a timeframe necessary to respond to the climate, energy and cost-of-living crisis. We need energy, decarbonisation and cost of living solutions this decade. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends a 50 per cent emissions reduction by 2030. As former Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel has noted, It is hard to imagine first operation of small modular reactor (SMR) technology before 2040. Read more

A better focus for the former prime minister than fending off Brookfield’s ~$30bn of decarbonisation capital that comes with its bid for gentailer Origin would be using his influence to press for reform of the short-term performance test benchmarks that penalise the superannuation industry for investments in future facing, low carbon industries. Read more

Our op ed on PM Albanese’s state visit to the US. While the visit was touted as a platform for major announcements on investment into an Australian response to the game-changing Inflation Reduction Act, there was a lot of talk, but only $2bn for Australian critical minerals – entirely insufficient relative to the scale of our opportunity to lead the world in processing of minerals onshore. Read our full analysis. Read more

Tim Buckley wraps PM Albanese’s state visit to the US and the need for a more ambitious strategic public capital commitment to leverage the opportunities of the US IRA, noting the $2bn additional commitment to critical minerals announced is insufficient relative to our massive opportunity as the world’s #1 exporter of lithium and does not adequately respond to the scale and pace of global decarbonisation. Read more

Tim Buckley told ABC News that the $2bn announcement by the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese into the sector through low-interest loans for miners and processors is a token response. The US has put US$1,000bn on the table to drive investment in the decarbonisation. Australian government needs to place $100bn public capital support to crowd in the decarbonisation sector, as we need to respond at the speed and scale to the size of the opportunity. Read more

Tim Buckley told ABC news that tens of billions of dollars would be needed to set up an onshore renewable battery industry in Australia, to develop the entire supply chain in Australia from critical minerals, to processing and batter assembly, and ideally EV assembly in Australia as well. Read more

Tim Buckley, director of independent public interest think tank Climate Energy Finance, said $2 billion was “a mere token response” to the Biden administration’s $US1 trillion ($A1.6 trillion) industrial and energy stimulus – the biggest in US history. “It isn’t even a down payment, it is so lacking in courage, conviction and ambition,” Mr Buckley told AAP. Read more

As Elizabeth Thurbon et al write in The Lowy Interpreter, the Australian Renewable Industry Package is a $100 billion, ten-year green energy transition package proposed by a coalition of groups including Climate Energy Finance, the Smart Energy Council, and the Australian Council of Trade Unions. This was no knee-jerk or panicked effort, but a considered view on a proportionate Australian response to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – a $520 billion bipartisan bid to secure US dominance in the high-wage, high-tech green industries of the future. The IRA is now sucking a good deal of green energy investment away from Australia, requiring a policy response from Canberra commensurate with Australia’s generational opportunity. Read more

The federal government could save $14 billion by capping the fuel tax credit for large mining companies and use the funds to drive the electrification of the sector, think tank Climate Energy Finance says. The fuel tax credit scheme, which allows businesses to claim for tax paid on fuel used to power machinery and heavy vehicles, will cost taxpayers $37 billion by 2030 unless the government sets a limit on how much they can claim, a report by the think tank says. Report co-author Tim Buckley said the tax credit scheme was the nation’s largest fossil fuel subsidy and one of the biggest in the world. Read more

CEF joined The call for a ten-year $100 billion Australian Renewables Industry Package to respond to the US IRA, endorsed by partners including the Australian Conservation Foundation, Australian Council of Trade Unions, Climate Action Network Australia, First Nations Clean Energy Network, New Energy Nexus, Rewiring Australia and the Smart Energy Council. Read more