Reports and Analysis
Future Made in Australia Act to Put Australia in Global Cleantech Race
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today announces the Future Made in Australia Act, designed to deliver a uniquely Australian Response to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – which is turbocharging renewables, cleantech and reindustrialisation in the US as it drives massive private capital investment – and comparable initiatives across other major economies. The Act will bring together a co-ordinated and comprehensive package of new and existing decarbonisation initiatives to seize the opportunities of a future made in Australia. It promises massive new investment, regional employment and net export opportunities, leveraging and value-adding our world-leading natural resources, both renewables and mining, as well as our expertise, geographic position in Asia and financial strengths. Read more
Green (Buildings) Wash?: Big banks’ ~$400bn sustainable finance target misses mark on driving enormous net zero opportunity by disproportionate allocation to minimally energy-efficient property asset class
The new analysis is the first to quantify and compare the capital allocations of the Big 4 banks to renewable energy and whole of economy decarbonisation. It reveals that only 7% of the Big 4 banks’ collective $385bn sustainable finance target (SFT) by 2030 is directed to financing renewable energy and hard to abate industries. The vast majority of their climate-related capital allocations – between 44% and 72% – channelled into the low hanging fruit of BAU ‘green buildings’ that meet minimum energy efficiency regulations. Read more
REPORT | More coal subsidies to extend Eraring? Heads, Origin wins; Tails, taxpayers lose
CEF’s new report reveals taxpayers would be on the hook for $150m per year in subsidies to Origin Energy to keep ageing coal clunker Eraring operating beyond its planned closure date in August 2025, and confirms there is enough renewable capacity in the pipeline to offset the closure. Read more
Super opportunity: Government review of YFYS Performance Test
Australia’s superannuation industry is on track for massive growth, projected to reach a staggering $13.6 trillion over the next twenty-four years. This shows the monumental significance of what our superfunds invest in, placing them at the heart of the nation’s financial landscape. According to a new report by Mercer, by 2048, the value of superannuation assets is expected to be 176% of Australia’s GDP, demonstrating its immense significance to the country’s economic well-being and direction. Read more
OP ED | Climate capital needs right policy settings to stem exodus
Last week’s announcement by AusSuper, Australia’s biggest super fund with over $300bn in assets under management, that it will dramatically upscale its investments offshore, including A$15.5bn into large-scale, long-term energy transition opportunities in the UK, should be a wake-up call to Australian energy policymakers. Read more
Analysis | QLD Battery Industry Strategy Positions Sunshine State as Cleantech Leader – Time for State and Federal Counterparts to Step Up
Queensland’s groundbreaking announcement today of a more than half billion dollar investment of strategic public capital into a battery industry strategy means the sunshine state is now becoming the nation’s cleantech leader, streaking ahead of the other states and the federal government to claim the zero-emissions energy and investment crown. Read more
OP ED | Here we go again: Rooftop PV + SMRs + CCS the latest ploy in the Coalition’s ‘disrupt and delay’ handbook
Here we go again – the latest salvo from the climate laggards of the National Party designed to disrupt and delay Australia’s accelerating clean energy revolution. This time, it is couched in the tactically crafty but deeply cynical and flawed view that distributed renewables – minus utility-scale – are the solution to electricity grid decarbonisation. Read more
REPORT | Queensland’s Energy Transformation: From Coal Colossus to Renewable Energy Superpower
An analysis of Queensland’s current energy grid and its transition from FY24 to FY36, modelling the impacts of large-scale and distributed energy generation and storage to meet Queensland’s renewable energy and emissions reduction targets. Read more
OP ED | Massive Victorian blackout a copybook illustration of need to build energy system resilience & accelerate transition to firmed renewables
Yesterday afternoon storms damaged power lines across Victoria taking all four generators at AGL’s massive end-of-life 2,210 megawatt (MW) coal-fired Loy Yang A power station offline as part of a cascading series of events, and with it 30% of the state’s power supply. This is a massive wake up call on the unreliability of ailing coal clunkers and the need to transition to firmed renewables. Read more
