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As Energy Minister Bowen flags a carbon tariff on some imports, Australia well placed to lead development of a path towards a regional Asian Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism Read more

Australia is well placed to lead development of a path towards a regional Asian Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism involving China, Australia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, as it bids to host COP31. China, as the world leader in decarbonisation and in steel, aluminum and cement, is key. Read more

The answer is increasingly clear. Australia’s largest economic opportunity lies in transforming from a conventional commodity exporter into a global supplier of clean commodities like green iron, sustainable aviation fuel, green aluminium, and clean ammonia. This opportunity is well documented. Reports from The Superpower Institute, Climate Energy Finance, and others make the case for investment in value-added clean exports that align with global demand and climate trajectories. Read more

Republished from RENEW ECONOMY, 7 May 2025 Tim Buckley, from Climate Energy Finance, says that with Labor returned to government, it is time to “grasp this moment of policy certainty” and use it to build investor confidence, crowding-in domestic and foreign financial capital at scale to underpin our transition. Read more

“Without customers, suppliers and governments working together to a common time-frame, these projects aren’t going to get built, and that’s why we’ve seen so many announcements in the press of companies going bankrupt because they can’t do the capital raising anymore, or projects being slowed right down” Read more

The Australian budget was seen as sensible but incremental, without major structural changes. It focuses on cost-of-living relief, such as bulk billing and personal tax cuts. However, there were no new initiatives on decarbonization, despite previous investments like the Clean Iron and Green Aluminium funds. There is a need for Australia to pivot towards onshore manufacturing and value-adding exports, especially in green iron. The climate industry needs stronger support, with a bigger push for local content and supply chain capacity. There’s hope for continued progress in renewable energy and electrification to meet decarbonization targets by 2030. Read more

“DER can be targeted to people most in need and leverage the existing grid capacity, rather than having to wait for massive capital cost blows, and come at a lower investment cost to the government,” he told Renew Economy. Buckley suggested spending $500 million on smart meters for 1 million low income households, and potentially batteries as well, to allow those people to start benefiting from negative midday power prices. It would come at a much lower capital cost to the federal budget, make use of existing grid capacity, and be cheaper than the increasingly expensive proposed and under-construction transmission lines paid for by the $19 billion Rewiring Australia fund, he says. Read more

Building on the federal government’s $2 billiion Aluminium Production Tax Credit announcement to decarbonise the energy demand of the nation’s aluminium smelters – the largest source of emissions in the aluminium supply chain – the $1bn Green Iron Investment Fund leverages strategic public capital to crowd in private investment into value-added green iron projects. Comparatively, iron is the largest source of emissions in the steel value chain, with blast furnaces accounting for up to 87% of traditional, coal-based steel emissions. Read more

Tim shared some good news from Canberra with the Climate Capital Forum, joining a delegation to meet with upper and lower house politicians across the spectrum and spread a positive message on the need for the energy transition and reindustrialisation. Read more

Tim Buckley from Climate Energy Finance joined Melinda James this morning on Illawarra Breakfast on ABC Illawarra to discuss the latest developments in the steel industry and green energy. Tune in for insights! Tim’s exclusive interview can be heard at this link from 2:15:00 to 2:23:35” Read more

Under the plan, METI will evaluate submissions by automakers on their low-emission steel procurement and allocate subsidies based on the percentage of green steel being used, according to Matt Pollard, an analyst at clean energy consultancy Climate Energy Finance. “In the broader context, it is important for METI to publicly release the carbon accounting methodologies, green product definitions and emission thresholds it will use to determine products and producers that will benefit from the models approved under the new subsidy scheme,” Pollard said. Put simply, how all this works is likely to determine whether it is actually successful. Read more

Australia could miss out on $70 billion a year in export revenue if it does not pivot quickly enough to “green iron” as countries like China decarbonise their supply chains, a new report claims. By becoming a world leader in green iron, Australia could double its export revenue to $250 billion, according to the Climate Energy Finance (CEF) think tank. Read more