Media

In the context of international climate negotiations, which as realpolitik dictates, deal in the art of the possible, the failure to call for a phase out of coal does not overshadow the clear direction taken by the global community – to back in renewables and step back from fossil fuels. Now we need to see action from Australia in kicking its coal and gas habit. 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

In Singapore’s major newspaper The Straits Times, Tim Buckley agreed that the tripling RE target at COP28 was achievable, with China taking the lead. “China has installed 20GW per month of wind and solar in 2023, up 109 per cent year on year,” he told ST. It is also scaling up production of solar modules to meet global demand. Read more

Tim Buckley, the director of think tank Climate Energy Finance, also says China will need less Australian thermal and coking coal in the future. Buckley says China, which makes up 80 per cent of the world’s solar manufacturing capacity, has transformed the world’s capability to deliver on decarbonisation, and is driving costs down for other countries. He says solar module costs have fallen more than 40 per cent this year, making them more viable. Read more

In October, Australia’s government doubled low-interest loan funding for miners and critical mineral processors, taking the pot to $4 billion – an “entirely insufficient” figure, said Tim Buckley, a financial analyst and director at thinktank Climate Energy Finance (CEF). What the government fails to appreciate, Buckley said, is the race for green industry and supply chains is not a free market because “America has thrown a trillion bucks at the problem.” With China now a command economy, said Buckley, “our number one customer doesn’t actually believe in free markets.” Read more

In June, Clean Energy Finance’s Tim Buckley set the scene for a new “Solar Pivot”, based on the scale of solar installations and its plunging cost. “The speed of change is momentous. We are seeing combined momentum on three related fronts: rapid ongoing solar price deflation, multifold increases in solar manufacturing capacity and successive record solar deployments. Read more

India’s richest men, including Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, are investing billions into clean energy, even though they made their empire on the backs of fossil fuels. “There has probably never been a better time than now for India to grow more sustainably,” said Tim Buckley director of Sydney-based think tank Climate Energy Finance. That’s because of two main reasons: the world is seeing unprecedented levels of investment in clean technologies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and solar energy is getting significantly cheaper, he explained. Read more

Tim Buckley of Climate Energy Finance reflects on the commitment by 118 countries to treble their renewable energy and double their energy efficiency by 2030, set out at COP28 summit. He points out that while this ambitious goal is set, much hinges on which year gets used as the baseline. Tim emphasises China’s efforts in increasing their installation rates of wind and solar energy solutions. He sees this pledge as a potential turning point. Read more

A capital recycling partnership with AustralianSuper or another pension fund where Origin built projects and then sold stakes after completion could allow 15 GW worth of projects over the next decade if combined with a dividend reinvestment plan underwritten by a big fund, according to Tim Buckley, a director at think tank Climate Energy Finance. Read more

Clean energy advocate Tim Buckley warned the performance test also encouraged investments in fossil fuels as the current list of market indices favoured past market performance, which has been “heavily skewed in the past year or two to fossil fuel commodity windfall profits”. “Reforming the benchmark could enable super funds, including AustralianSuper, to move from decarbonisation investment blockers into global leaders, like Canada’s Brookfield and Singapore’s Temasek and GIC,” he wrote in the Financial Review this week. Read more

China Energy Policy Analyst Xuyang Dong spoke with Michelle Chen from SBS Madarin about CEF’s recent report – Decarbonising China & the World: Chinese Energy SOEs Supercharge Renewable Investment in Response to the 14th Five Year Plan. Xuyang told SBS that after tracking the investment trends of China’s five largest energy-focused state-owned enterprises, we found that these enterprises’ huge investments in new energy sources have significantly accelerated China’s decarbonisation. The report states that China’s demand for Australian coal will be significantly reduced and calls on the government to create a national strategic investment plan to secure the future of Australia’s energy exports. Read more

Tim Buckley comments for Energy Mix magazine: “China is well on the way to delivering its previous pledge of 1,200 GW of renewables by 2030 up to six years early, so for China to treble its cumulative efforts by 2030 is entirely feasible, given the phenomenal momentum that is already well under way,” said Tim Buckley, director of the Climate Energy Finance think tank. Read more