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Independent clean energy think tank Climate Energy Finance has called for a $20 billion Future Fund mandate to enable renewables-powered processing of green metals and for measures to accelerate investment in firmed renewable energy at scale. CEF Net Zero Transformation Analyst and lead author on the report Matt Pollard said Australia’s world leading iron ore producers have extracted huge returns on investment as China prioritised expansion of its steel mills. Read more

Australia accounts for 56% of seaborne iron ore trade, according to government figures. To avoid what could be “devastating economic consequences”, Australia needs “a suite of strategic national-interest policy and investment incentives to kickstart a green iron export industry”, the report said. “In the global race to green iron exports, Australia has numerous competitive advantages – such as abundant and cheap renewables – that we must capitalize on,” said Marilyne Crestias at Clean Energy Investor Group (CEIG). Read more

As the world’s top exporter of iron ore, Australia risks losing up to 50% of its $138 billion annual export revenues unless it invests in green iron production, according to a report by Climate Energy Finance (CEF). The report, Green Metal Statecraft: Forging Australia’s Green Iron Industry, argues that the shift towards decarbonisation in key markets such as China demands urgent action to maintain Australia’s role in the global steel supply chain. Read more

Australia, the world’s largest iron ore exporter, could see its export revenues plummet by 50 per cent unless it makes an urgent shift to green iron production, according to a new report by think tank Climate Energy Finance. The report, Green Metal Statecraft: Forging Australia’s Green Iron Industry, warns that as global steelmakers transition to low-emission practices, demand for traditional, high-emission iron ore is likely to fall sharply. This shift could cause Australia’s $138 billion iron ore revenue to halve, affecting the nation’s economy and global market standing. Read more

CEF published a major report on the electrification and decarbonisation of the Pilbara in August 2024, that argued that AREH could be a key part of the solution. Tim Buckley and colleague CEF Net Zero Transformation Analyst Matt Pollard, believe that AREH has the potential to act as a model for the Pilbara in how private enterprise can effectively collaborate with state and federal governments to accelerate large-scale renewable energy projects. ‘Renewable energy hubs at the scale of AREH can provide significant cost advantages over distributed, smaller-scale renewable energy projects,’ they say. Read more

“Australia is never going to be able to compete on our own against the Chinese, the robotics, the artificial intelligence, the scale of their manufacturing, their phenomenal investments in research and development, all of that says we’ll never catch them,” says Tim Buckley. “But we don’t have to catch them; we can partner with them”. Read more

Tim Buckley details CEF”s new report, ‘Green capital tsunami: China’s >$100 billion outbound cleantech investment since 2023 turbocharges global energy transition’. He notes if Australia is to enjoy the benefits of the billions China’s cleantech leaders are investing into solar, wind, batteries, EVs etc across the globe, speeding global decarbonisation, it must embrace and welcome partnership and maintain positive bilateral relations. Read more

Australia China Business Council chair David Olsson reflects on CEF’s new Green Capital Tsunami report, which tracks $100bn since 2023 in foreign investment by Chinese firms in sun, wind, EVs, batteries and other cleantech around the world, noting that Australia has untold potential to partner with China and attract investment from the world’s cleantech superpower – if we get the foreign investment rules right. Read more

The director of Climate Energy Finance, Tim Buckley, said while Australia was right to court capital from the UAE for the green energy transition, it was also important to keep expectations in check. “I welcome collaboration with UAE, but we have to be realistic about how much money they might pour into Australia,” he said. “Particularly as the UAE is already emerging as a competitor for Australia in clean energy, because it has a big pool of capital for projects and an abundance of wind and solar, like us.” Mr Buckley said the truly “massive” commercial opportunities for Australia still lay in collaborating with major economies in the region like China and Japan to assist their decarbonisation progress. Read more

As China’s construction slump and steel glut bite, the chairman of government-owned China Baowu Group, the world’s largest steelmaker, has warned China’s steel sector will enter a “severe winter” more challenging than even the major downturns experienced during the GFC of 2008. This spells trouble for iron ore. Australia is the world’s largest iron ore exporter, and it is our number one commodity export, with over 80% going to China. The benchmark iron ore price has fallen below $US100/tonne, while prices for metallurgical coal used in steelmaking have dropped by a third to US$202/t in just 2 months. Read more

Tim Buckley at the AFR Asia Summit alongside Foreign Minister Wong and former PM Kevin Rudd said that Australia should embrace the decarbonisation opportunity that would come from a more open stance towards Chinese investment. “It’s critical Australia actually double down and work and enhance and partner with China because if not, they will go elsewhere,” he said. “At the moment, I don’t think that message is coming through loud and clear. We don’t know what the rules, or China doesn’t know what the rules are, for when they do invest here.” Read more

Tim Buckley speaks with Sky News on transitioning our economy away from fossil fuels that Australia has had a historical over reliance on, and into zero emissions technology, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visit to the Pacific and the urgent need to end coal and gas. Tim also speaks on massive profitability of Australia’s iron ore majors, and the lack of urgency from Australia’s corporates to address the climate emergency. Read more