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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

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

Climate Energy Finance said the commitment at COP28 by over 100 countries to triple renewables by 2030 – particularly Australia, US, EU, Canada and Japan – was “excellent”. “Two years ago this would have been seen as next to impossible,” director Tim Buckley said in a statement. “But with China having transformed the world’s (manufacturing) capability to deliver on decarbonisation, this goal will collectively bend the climate trajectory towards what the science clearly dictates.” Read more

Wholesale prices of electricity are down about 50 per cent in the 2023 calendar year, relative to 2022, because the “hyperinflation of gas and coal commodity prices internationally over 2022 has now in 2023 progressively come off [more than] 70 per cent from their peak”, according to Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley. The government is being transparent about this, in sharp contrast to Angus Taylor, who, as energy minister in the Morrison government, sat on the relevant report predicting significant price increases in the run-up to the last election. Read more

CEF’s China energy policy analyst, report lead author Xuyang Dong, tracked investment trends of China’s 5 top State Owned Enterprises, reviewing reporting disclosures and corporate data in the original Chinese. Xuyang Dong said: “China is decarbonising the world and the Chinese energy SOEs are playing a significant role in this process, as their massive capital expenditure pivot into renewables and cleantech shows. China’s ambition to lead the greening of the world is evident in its energy policies and climate goals, and reflected in energy SOEs’ capex trends, which highlight the possibility of China exceeding its energy goals. ” Read more

At the 28th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, starting on Thursday, negotiators from around the world will try to thrash out new global commitments to mitigate and adapt to climate change, one of the toughest challenges facing humanity. The world will also be looking to China to signal an intention to put a price on carbon emissions in domestic goods and imports, said Tim Buckley, director at Australia-based think tank Climate Energy Finance. “This would elevate China’s global leadership in all zero-emissions industries of the future and would signal the need for a clear international price on carbon emissions in global trade,” he said. Read more

Tim Buckley, Director of Climate Energy Finance expresses his approval of Energy Federal Minister Chris Bowen’s decision to expand the capacity investment scheme, describing it as a major shift in ambition. He highlights the issue of foreign takeovers of Australian energy companies by firms based in tax havens, viewing this as a loss for taxpayers. However, he points out that companies such as Brookfield’s willingness to invest substantial amounts in renewable energy potentially outweighs this concern. Read more

Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance, speaks to pv magazine about the current steep trajectory of solar module prices. He estimates that PV panels prices will end up dropping by 40% this year and predicts the closure of old technology and sub-scale solar manufacturing facilities, both in China and globally. Read more

The Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) is a federal initiative designed to underpin the deployment of dispatchable renewable energy and storage capacity across Australia, offsetting any reliability gaps as the country transitions from fossil-fuel based to clean energy and coal exits the system. It is a central enabler of the federal renewable energy target of 82% by 2030. The CIS explicitly excludes methane gas peaking power plants. Read more

“The wholesale cost of electricity has come down more than 50 per cent year on year in [calendar year] 2023 because the hyperinflation of gas and coal commodity prices internationally over 2022 has now in 2023 progressively come off [more than] 70 per cent from their peak,” Climate Energy Finance Director Tim Buckley says. Read more

Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance, today hailed Federal Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s decision to expand the Capacity Investment Scheme to a targeted 32GW, a huge stepchange in ambition. Read more

CEF partner and advisory board member, Blair Palese, founder of the Climate Capital Forum, makes a powerful case for Australia to step up its transition investment ambition ahead of COP and in light of the US Inflation Reduction Act. Read more