Media

China leads the world by a huge and growing margin across almost all of the frontiers of our decarbonised future, from sophisticated clean tech manufacturing to domestic renewable energy installations to foreign direct investment into the energy transition. In April alone, China installed over 45GW of solar power capacity, more than Australia’s entire solar fleet. Read more

On a recent delegation, I saw the futuristic factory of solar giant Longi in Jiaxing, with its omnipresent robots, combining automation, big data, AI and 5G to flexibly customise solar module components for diverse application scenarios and customers, revolutionising advanced manufacturing at massive scale. This is not an isolated case. China leads the world by a huge and growing margin across almost all of the frontiers of our decarbonised future, from sophisticated clean tech manufacturing to domestic renewable energy installations to foreign direct investment into the energy transition. Read more

Electrification and decarbonization are key global themes in 2025, as are rapidly changing geopolitical circumstances. While some countries are abrogating their global commitments to act on climate science while upending world trade, there is also a growing interest in re-aligning towards countries and regions keen to pursue enhanced cooperation and collaboration. As the environmental and economic costs of climate change continue to rise, both the economics and energy independence benefits of the 28th session of the Conference of Parties (COP28) pledge by almost 200 countries back in 2023 to triple renewable energy deployments by 2030 looks more and more strategically compelling Read more

In a significant development this week, newly re-elected Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen flagged that Australia is considering imposing a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) – a carbon tariff. He suggested that they could be introduced this term on imports such as cement, lime and steel, building on the Carbon Leakage Review the government commissioned from ANU expert Professor Frank Jotzo. This is a good start. We hope it signals that the Albanese government intends to use the thumping mandate it just won from the electorate to scale its green superpower agenda. 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

The electorate rejected the LNP’s nuclear con job, energy transition delay tactics and climate denialism. Labor was returned with a decisive mandate to accelerate Australia’s renewable energy rollout and economy-wide decarbonisation. The nuclear fallout now includes an historic rupture between the Coalition partners, with the Liberal and National Parties committing the most spectacular act of political self-annihilation in living memory. Read more

The LNP’s nuclear furphy is dead, buried and cremated. Now is the time for conviction and courage to double down and move at the speed the climate science dictates, seizing the magnitude of opportunities ahead for Australia on energy transition, domestic and export. Read more

CEF observes continued price deflation in solar PV and batteries – prices dropped 20% for batteries, and Chinese panels plummeted by 37 to 46% in 2024. This cost reduction has turbocharged deployment rates, with almost 600GW of solar PV installed in 2024. Assuming continued growth in China deployments, 700GW this year seems likely, and CEF projects this will rise to 1,000GW per annum by 2030. BESS installation rates are expected to treble in this timeframe. With solar modules and battery manufacturing capacity at three times the current global installations, expectations of plateauing installations are entirely unlikely. Read more

Peter Dutton’s new national gas plan sounds good in theory: force gas companies to supply more gas for domestic consumption, thereby reducing domestic gas prices by about 30%. But the reality is likely to be very different. Read more

Woodside Energy’s CEO Meg O’Neill sounded a self-serving alarm last week about the risks for Australia of the US’s new administration’s “drill baby drill” mantra, concluding that the ever-looming east coast gas supply shortage demands urgent government actions to accelerate gas exploration and development. Read more

Prof Elizabeth Thurbon writes on CEF’s green iron report and the immense strategic opportunity for Australia in establishing a green iron and steel industry Read more

The election of Donald Trump – a felon and climate crisis denier – as president of the United States comes as a stroke of bitter irony after recent floods exacerbated by global warming smashed parts of the southeast US – Hurricane Milton alone is likely to cost up to US$50 billion – and given the escalating intensity of wildfires and other natural disasters taking a huge toll on America and other countries. Trump’s “drill baby, drill” energy policies are a disaster for the US, intergenerational equity and global efforts to mitigate the climate crisis. Read more