Our work

Ahead of gas giant and mega-polluter Woodside Energy’s AGM, we estimate the multibillion dollar carbon liability the company will cop under the critically important Safeguard Mechanism reforms if it fails to abate its emissions and invest in energy transition solutions in line with the climate science, investor pressure and accelerating global momentum Read more

CEF’S Matt Pollard takes a close look at global EV sales in the first quarter of 2023, and finds the industry is booming off the back of a massive acceleration in decarbonisation momentum globally. Read more

This month, the Government of India announced exciting plans to treble renewable energy tenders to 50GW pa so as to add 250GW of RE by 2027/28. Brookfield of Canada also announced a US$1bn investment in Avaada Energy, which has aggressive solar expansion plans, following a number of significant injections of global capital into Indian renewables this year. We examine the strong momentum building after 3 years of inaction in the country’s energy transformation – traction which now requires government policy ambition and consistency to sustain. Read more

Our op ed on a new report released today by the Clean Energy Investor Group and Investor Group on Climate Change, flagging that Australian governments need to collectively lift collaboration with private investors, and derisk the electricity sector to crowd-in private capital at the scale and speed required to meet energy and climate objectives. Read more

As the federal government’s Resources and Energy Quarterly released today projects lithium export earnings of $18.6bn in 22/23, CEF’s Matt Pollard reviews growth in and investments by key Australian producers as we start to leverage our once in a century opportunity to lead the world in value-added critical minerals. Read more

As US giant Albermarle swoops on burgeoning local lithium producer Liontown with a takeover bid, CEF guest contributor Owen Evans and CEF’s Tim Buckley recommend that the Foreign Investment Review Board and Treasurer Jim Chalmers take a hard look at the national interest implications and reject the bid. Read more

We review the Safeguard Mechanism reforms which have finally passed parliament, as a new report reveals the methane bomb at the heart of the SGM; our review of Macquarie’s efforts in decarbonising its financing; we take a look at the China “drums of war” rhetoric in the context of the threat of climate change; the latest on Adani and more Read more

The deal struck between the federal government, the Greens and the Teals today to get the Safeguard Mechanism legislation through parliament, to come into effect from 1 July, is a significant step forward on the nation’s decarbonisation pathway. Overall it enhances the ambition, public accountability, integrity and impact of the mechanism legislation initially proposed by the government, and while still far from perfect, it is a major advance on the state of play as recently as last week. Read our new analysis. Read more

Fifth in CEF’s climate finance analyses series of Australia’s Big 5 banks, Nishtha Aggarwal reviews the entirety of Macquarie Group’s climate impact across the Group’s four business lines, Macquarie Asset Management (MAM), Macquarie Capital (MacCap), Banking and Financial Services (BFS), and Commodities and Global Markets (CGM). We find The Group’s combined global 107GW portfolio of clean energy is unrivalled among major Australian financial institutions, but its dominance in conventional energy markets undermines the Group’s climate commitments by contributing to global warming above a 1.5 degree pathway. Read more

A new report by eminent environmental scientist Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe, commissioned by Lock the Gate, finds that direct methane emissions from fossil fuel facilities make up ~70% of total greenhouse gas emissions covered under the federal Safeguard Mechanism (SGM), when the global warming impact is calculated over 20 years. Methane devastates the climate. It is 85 times more potent than CO2 in the short term. CEF is supporting release of the report. Read more

Public discourse on national security in Australia is evolving, while geopolitics and sovereign security are inarguably important, Australian society also cares about the economy and issues such as resilience in the face of the impacts of the climate and energy crisis. Diversifying Australia’s security strategy to encompass these concerns is an urgent matter because China is no longer the only, or major, threat to the world – or to Australia. Climate change and the energy crisis are clearly endangering Australia’s national interests now, and require more nuanced conversations to tackle. Read more

The global race to decarbonisation massively escalated overnight with new regulations designed to turbocharge and onshore cleantech in the EU, following the US’s game-changing Inflation Reduction Act, which is spearheading the energy revolution there. The challenge is now on for Australia to accelerate investment and leverage its competitive advantages as a value-adding energy transition materials and renewables superpower – or miss the boat. Read more