Media

The Act could be the foundation for our future as a zero-emissions trade and investment leader and global clean energy superpower, as we inevitably pivot from our historic dependence on carbon exports. Read more

By BLAIR PALESE and TIM BUCKLEY To capitalise on the advantages of our strongly export-oriented economy and our excellent relationships with our partners in an increasingly complex and dynamic global geopolitical context, the government’s Future Made in Australia is focused on collaborating with our Asian trade partners. The government has acknowledged the need for better understanding and tools to determine how Australia encourages and develops an international green premium price signal for trade in decarbonised products. Read more

In practice a production tax credit would generate a tax credit of perhaps 10 per cent, which could be offset against a company’s tax bill for qualifying downstream processing activities, or received as cash if the company was not generating profits. The head of the Climate Energy Finance think tank, former Citigroup managing director Tim Buckley said the government’s assertion that state intervention “is the new competition’’ was correct. “We can’t afford to ‘sit it out’,’’ Mr Buckley said. Read more

We need to get on the bandwagon or get left behind. The transition is happening. The world is moving on. If we don’t move with everyone, Australia will languish and stagnate. So what’s in this plan? Founder and director of Climate Energy Finance Tim Buckley is here. G’day, Tim. Good afternoon Jake. So how would you describe this plan in simple terms? This plan. is definitely Australia’s uniquely Australian response to the US Inflation Reduction Act. Without doubt. Read more

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unveiled the “Future Made in Australia Act” to help compete with global partners who are providing massive subsidies to new industries. The act, to be discussed by parliament this year, would mark a departure from Australia’s decades-old free market policies on trade and investment. Tim Buckley, director of independent public interest think tank Climate Energy Finance, said the act would lay the foundations to make Australia a zero-emissions trade and investment leader and global clean energy “superpower”. About 27 percent of the Australian economic output came from exports to international partners and this new act would have flow-on effects and help them decarbonise as well, Buckley told AFP. “State intervention is the new competition. We can’t afford to ‘sit it out’. The Future Made In Australia Act puts Australia into the global race. It is the investment signal and de-risking private capital needs,” he said. Read more

As Yellen laid out plans to formalise dialogue with China over excess industrial capacity in electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels and batteries, saying Washington would not accept U.S. industry being “decimated”, the Chinese finance ministry issued a statement saying it had already “fully responded” to her concerns. One industry where global demand does not keep up with Chinese production, though, is solar. Xuyang Dong, China energy policy analyst at Climate Energy Finance in Sydney, estimates China’s wafer, cell and module capacity coming online in 2024 is sufficient to meet annual global demand now through to 2032. Read more

In a speech to Queensland’s Media Club, Albanese laid out the foundations of federal Labor’s plan to use taxpayer-funded incentives to advance the manufacturing and clean energy industries, including hydrogen, green metals, solar power and emerging renewables. “Albanese’s speech announcing the Act is ambitious and visionary,” said Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance and a former MD of Citigroup. “It has the makings of the foundation for our future as a zero-emissions trade and investment leader and global clean energy superpower, as we inevitably pivot from our historic dependence on carbon exports. Buckley says Albanese’s vision is to build on Australia’s existing strengths – and critically, also look beyond them – a point many “old-school economists” have so far failed to grasp. “Relying on traditional competitive advantage logic misses that the transition to net zero is a $US4-6 trillion annual investment opportunity globally for the next couple of decades… and one in which every major economy has invested massive national interest public capital,” Buckley said on Thursday. Read more

Battery storage is the hot-spot in the Australian renewable energy transition right now, but it has barely touched the sides when looking at its potential. The so-called “Swiss Army Knives” of the renewable energy transition have learned how to make returns in some key parts of the grid, but much of their potential – long duration storage and specific services – remains difficult because either the market does not exist, or because of the lack of funding and support. Tim Buckley joins Giles Parkinson, Founder & Editor of Renew Economy, alongside Paul Curnow from Akaysha Energy and Daniel Burrows from Eku Energy. Read more

John Menadue Public Policy Journal: I joined a large audience in the North Sydney electorate on 4 April at a community forum that Kylea Tink called on “The future of our environment”. The message I took home was that the climate crisis is more urgent than ever. Its impacts are increasingly obvious. Roughly 90 percent of the mining industry in this country is foreign-owned. Not surprisingly, when last year was a year of record profits, it was also a year of record lobbying action. Tim Buckley, Director of Climate Energy Finance, told the Sydney Morning Herald that profits from the export of $240 billion fossil fuels in 2022 led companies to “fund their lobbying efforts to delay climate action and protect their profits”. Read more

Greg Combet’s ascension to incoming chair of the Future Fund is already generating plenty of discussion around the sovereign wealth manager’s role in investing in Australia’s green economic transition, even though he won’t take the reins until July. “They’ve gone from having a climate luddite to a climate evangelist in the chair — so you would expect the fund to have a more significant role and invest more in that area,” said Tim Buckley, director of think tank Climate Energy Finance. Read more

IN Australian Resources and Investment Magazine, Tim Buckley recommends producers look for strategic partners who want to secure long-term, reliable supply, possibly supported by an equity share. “This can be globally – say, Korea, Japan, India and the US, supported domestically by leveraging the growing interest of government-owned finance entities like the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), Export Finance Australia (EFA), and the National Reconstruction Fund (NRF),” he said. Read more

Consolidation in China’s crowded solar power sector is pushing smaller players out of the market, but excess production capacity – with more on the way – threatens to keep global prices low for years. “Many non-solar companies in China have been enticed by massive sustained market growth opportunities in solar and favourable policy support,” said Dong of Climate Energy Finance, who expects most plans by such players not to materialise. Read more