Media

Climate and energy experts criticised a $137 million federal grant to BlueScope Steel for a $1.15 billion upgrade of its Port Kembla blast furnace – extending coal-based steelmaking for two decades – as a missed chance to spur more ambitious carbon reductions. The Climate Capital Forum, which represents investors, decarbonisation firms and policy experts, said that “while Australia procrastinates, developed world leaders are pivoting”. Read more

Allocating taxpayer monies to support BlueScope Steel to invest $1bn to lock in high emissions blast furnace technology for the next 20 years is a missed opportunity according to Climate Capital Forum. Much stronger incentives are urgently needed to reduce – not support new – fossil fuel powered production. Read more

Our op ed on PM Albanese’s state visit to the US. While the visit was touted as a platform for major announcements on investment into an Australian response to the game-changing Inflation Reduction Act, there was a lot of talk, but only $2bn for Australian critical minerals – entirely insufficient relative to the scale of our opportunity to lead the world in processing of minerals onshore. Read our full analysis. Read more

According to a report released today by Climate Energy Finance (CEF), capping the diesel fuel rebate (the Fuel Tax Credit Scheme – FCT) would save $14 billion over 7 years. It could also help to kick-start a mining electric vehicle industry in Australia, including export opportunities. Read more

Australian Mine Safety Journal reports that restricting fossil fuel incentives could accelerate the transition towards environmentally friendly alternatives, a study found. “This is not a revenue grab we are trying to encourage them to do the right thing,” Climate Energy Finance Corporation founding director Tim Buckley said according to the Australian Associated Press. Buckley suggested extra taxpayer money should be spent on luring Liebherr, Komatsu, Caterpillar and more to expand their domestic electric vehicle operations. Read more

Tim Buckley told AusBiz that CEF calls for a new $100bn new capital and direct budget investment in renewables and energy transition over the next decade, as a response to Biden’s IRA, with half to focus on domestic electrification and decarbonisation, another half to focus on value-added energy transition materials exports. Part of this could be funded by a cap on the diesel rebate to mining. Read more

The federal government could save $14 billion by capping the fuel tax credit for large mining companies and use the funds to drive the electrification of the sector, think tank Climate Energy Finance says. The fuel tax credit scheme, which allows businesses to claim for tax paid on fuel used to power machinery and heavy vehicles, will cost taxpayers $37 billion by 2030 unless the government sets a limit on how much they can claim, a report by the think tank says. Report co-author Tim Buckley said the tax credit scheme was the nation’s largest fossil fuel subsidy and one of the biggest in the world. Read more

Fossil fuel subsidies in Australia reached $11 billion in 2022-23, extending decades of direct capital transfers and tax concessions to some of Australia’s most polluting industries and making Australia one of the G20’s largest providers of subsidies for fossil fuels. The scale of the impact to our economy is enormous. The FTCS is the largest fossil fuel subsidy in Australia and is the 18th largest government expense program in 2023-24. The federal government estimates the FTCS will cost over $9.5 billion in tax concessions in 2023-24 alone, with the credits largely going to Australia’s bulk commodity and fossil fuel mining firms. Read more

Tim Buckley says we have a ‘once-in-a-generation’ chance to pivot our economy towards industries of the future. Australia imports 29 billion litres of high emissions, inflationary diesel each year, heavily subsidised by the Federal Government, critically undermining Australia’s climate and green manufacturing ambitions. A cap to the fuel rebate scheme would create a tailwind for electrifying Australia’s mining fleet, deploying the best technology to become a world leader in embedded decarbonisation. Read more

Australia could kick start the electric truck era by curbing off-road diesel rebates that go to the mining sector, economic modelling shows. A report to be released by independent think tank Climate Energy Finance on Monday calls for the diesel fuel tax credit (FTC) for the mining sector to be capped at $50 million a year per company.”This is not a revenue grab, we’re trying to encourage them to do the right thing,” co-author Tim Buckley told AAP. He said Australia must deal with the “hyper-inflationary” dependence on imported high-emissions diesel and build onshore manufacturing. Australia needs its biggest companies to be “leaders not laggards” on electrification and emissions reduction, he said. “This is all about them having a policy tailwind to back their own strategy of decarbonisation,” he said. Read more

While the usual suspects, including the National Party, railed against the move, it has been welcomed by many in the clean energy industries, including think tank Climate Energy Finance (CEF). Its Director, Tim Buckley, said: “CEF prefers the Queensland government’s progressive royalty approach, which only applies in full less than once a decade or or even more infrequently, at times of coal export sector superprofits, but an increased share in NSW to guarantee a fairer return to public coffers is definitely a good start.” Read more

The director of the public interest think tank Climate Energy Finance, Tim Buckley, described the move as “politically courageous”. The think tank had been advocating for the introduction of a progressive coal royalty scheme, similar to what has been introduced in Queensland. Read more