Media

Australia’s green bank, industry and all levels of government are on notice to consider the nation’s “chronic climate risks” and invest accordingly. But it’s not too late to avert the worst of it, according to the first National Climate Risk Assessment and Adaptation Plan, which feed into the imminent 2035 emissions reduction pledge Australia must make under the Paris Agreement. Critical energy infrastructure is already vulnerable to bushfires, heatwaves and extreme heat, coastal inundation, extreme rainfall and associated flooding, tropical cyclones and extreme wind. Read more

One of Australia’s largest proposed coal projects could absorb more in diesel tax exemptions in its lifetime than the initial sum sunk into its construction, environmental groups say. About $44 million a year would be rebated to Whitehaven for its Winchester South coal mine under the fuel tax credit scheme, which is facing renewed scrutiny for its drag on public finances and decarbonisation goals. Read more

CEF’s new report finds that Australia’s largest taxpayer-funded fossil fuel subsidy – the diesel Fuel Tax Credit (FTC) Scheme – is entrenching dependence on imported high-emissions diesel to power mining operations, undermining climate targets, damaging productivity and draining tens of billions from the federal budget. Read more

Tim Buckley highlights the immense opportunity and risk for Australia in the global push for green steel. As the world’s […] Read more

The government’s $32 billion green bank says Labor’s net zero targets will be put out of reach in sectors such as aviation and long-haul trucking unless the government turbocharges investment in locally made low-carbon fuels. Read more

The key problem is that Snowy Hydro has built 7 new fossil fuel generation projects since the turn of this century, but has not built a single wind, solar or BESS project. The Snowy board is failing to align with and drive the Federal Government’s ambitious electricity decarbonisation agenda, nor build the replacement generation capacity we need to lower power prices for all. Read more

Have Australian CBAM enthusiasts been dreaming too small? Is an Asian CBAM the secret sauce for clean trade in our region? Have Frankie and Luke now read enough CBAM papers to level up and get a CBAM merit badge? Tennant licks his lips as your intrepid hosts devour a new report from Climate Energy Finance, ‘A Price On Carbon: Building Towards an Asian CBAM’. While this wasn’t necessarily the CBAM paper we were looking for, authors Matt Pollard and Tim Buckley make carbon pricing padawans of us all – and maybe all those DFAT folks who need to use the force to sell this idea – and give us the basic commands for a future Asian CBAM Read more

The Bonaparte CCS project is owned by Inpex, Woodside and TotalEnergies, which want to store captured carbon dioxide under the seabed on a site about 250km offshore from Darwin from 2030. Science and industry minister Tim Ayres awarded major project status to the CCS project and the Northern Silica project, and extended the status to Mike Cannon-Brookes’ Sun Cable project and the Broken Hill cobalt blue project, as part of the federal government’s effort to modernise the country’s energy system. Read more

The weekend saw a seismic escalation in the conflict in the Middle East, as the US bombed Iran’s key uranium enrichment facilities. This followed Israel’s campaign of military intervention on the justification that Iran must be prevented from developing nuclear capabilities. The situation represents a dramatic increase in geopolitical instability in the region – a key source of global fossil fuel energy production and exports – and has potentially dire consequences for worldwide energy markets and economies dependent on imports for their energy needs. Australia is one such economy. Read more

The Highlights * Tim’s TED X Sydney * Net-Zero Export Target Proposal: ANU’s Frank Jotzo and Annette Zou * Heavy Equipment Decarbonisation: BHP signs MoU with China’s XCMG * China’s Cleantech Outbound Investment (OFDI): China building cleantech infrastructure abroad (e.g., 10GWh EV battery plant in France for Renault). $170B tracked in cleantech OFDI since 2023 Read more

Electrification and decarbonization are key global themes in 2025, as are rapidly changing geopolitical circumstances. While some countries are abrogating their global commitments to act on climate science while upending world trade, there is also a growing interest in re-aligning towards countries and regions keen to pursue enhanced cooperation and collaboration. As the environmental and economic costs of climate change continue to rise, both the economics and energy independence benefits of the 28th session of the Conference of Parties (COP28) pledge by almost 200 countries back in 2023 to triple renewable energy deployments by 2030 looks more and more strategically compelling Read more

On June 5, CEF released a report arguing that carbon pricing is the most cost-effective tool for decarbonizing the global economy. Implementing CBAM targeting key industrial commodities—such as steel, cement, and aluminum—would restore carbon markets, support global emissions reductions, mitigate climate risks, and redirect capital away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy and green industrial products. The report found that carbon pricing mechanisms are becoming increasingly common in the Asia-Pacific region, with 17 national or subnational systems currently in operation, including China’s Emissions Trading System (ETS). Read more