Reports and Analysis
EU’s new Net Zero Industry & Critical Raw Materials Acts dramatically escalate pressure on Australia to seize once-in-a-century cleantech opportunity
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
CEF NEWS UPDATE | EU introduces Net Zero Industry Act; AEMO finds gas shortage, we find gas cartel ethics shortage; AER flags electricity price hike
Our news update, where we review the new EU Net Zero Industry Act and the pressure it puts on Australia to dramatically escalate decarbonisation investment; bust the AEMO myth that there is a gas shortage when the shortage is actually in gas cartel ethics; and look at the coming electricity price hike, moderated by the government’s market intervention last year Read more
There is no “gas shortage”, just a shortage of ethics and integrity from gas cartel
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO)’s assertion in its Gas Statement of Opportunity today that we need more new supply to offset purported imminent shortages is counterintuitive. There is no shortage, just a cartel with a chronic shortage of ethics extorting Australians as they export the majority of domestic production and rake in obscene war profits. It should be a major priority for AEMO to provide rule modernisations incentivising new technologies to rapidly decarbonise our grid and decouple from extortionate, polluting, volatile fossil fuels. Read our take. Read more
As regulator flags ~20% hike in retail electricity prices, accelerated energy transition only permanent solution to price pain
Consumers slugged by interest rate rises are in for more pain as the Australian Energy Regulator today flagged retail electricity price rises of ~20% from 1 July – noting that absent the Albanese government’s wholesale domestic coal and gas price cap intervention in December, this would have been more like 40-50%. The solutions: make the war-profiteering fossil fuel multinationals pulling superoprofits from our resources pay a temporary windfall tax to offset cost of living pressures for those hardest hit; and rapidly accelerate decarbonisation, delivering clean low-cost firmed renewables to Australians, permanently reducing power prices. Read more
New green home partnership between CEFC and CBA a welcome step toward residential sector emissions reduction
A new partnership between the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and Australia’s biggest mortgage lender, CBA, to incentivise energy efficiency and cut emissions in the $9tn residential sector is a step in the right direction, but there is scope for more ambition. CEF analyst Nishtha Aggarwal takes a look. Read more
Momentum builds: New NSW Treasury guidelines factor price of carbon emissions into assessment of fossil fuel projects
More good news on the decarbonisation front as NSW Treasury guidelines require proponents to factor the price of Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions into their cost benefit analyses of projects greater than $10m value – a welcome development that complements the carbon pricing at the centre of the federal Safeguard Mechanism reforms. Under these guidelines, major projects such as Whitehaven’s climate-wrecking Narrabri coalmine expansion would fail to secure approval. Read more
Superfunds with Adani exposures in spotlight as global fund manager throws lifeline to embattled giant
As major investors bail and ASX-listed global fund manager GQG throws flailing Adani a US$2bn lifeline, questions are raised about Australian superfunds’ investments in the conglomerate. If the Hindenburg allegations are proven, the funds are effectively using their investors’ money to bankroll the largest corporate con in history – not to mention the biggest developer of new coal in the world. Read more
CEF NEWS UPDATE | VALUE-ADDED MINERALS BOOM OURS FOR TAKING plus Safeguard Mechanism & Adani updates
The launch of CEF’s major new report on Australia’s once-in-a-century critical minerals opportunity – “A Critical Minerals Value-Adding Superpower” – with a foreword and AFR op ed by former chief scientist Dr Alan Finkel, the latest developments on the Adani crisis, and the rocky path of the Safeguard Mechanism reforms with just 3 weeks till parliament rises ahead of the May budget. Read more
Finding Australia’s place in the global geopolitical contest on energy and supply chain security
This week saw Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers make the call to back the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) recommendation to reject a Chinese-linked fund’s increased equity stake in an emerging Australian critical minerals developer, Northern Minerals, which is set to mine the rare earth dysprosium, used as an additive in neodymium magnets for electric vehicle motors. We look at the geopolitical implications of this move in the context of China’s global dominance on all things decarbonisation and responses by our trading partners. Read more
REPORT | A Critical Minerals Value-Adding Superpower
CEF’s new report is the first to comprehensively map Australia’s ‘once in a century’ opportunity to lead the world in value-added energy transition materials, including critical minerals, by processing, refining and manufacturing onhsore pre-export using our abundant renewable energy – a multi-hundred-billion dollar investment and export opportunity as the world rapidly decarbonises. The leading investment bank expects the “trilemma” of energy security, sustainability and affordability to remain in focus in 2023. Read more
AEMO updates its Electricity Statement of Opportunities
The Australian Energy Market Operator released an update of its Electricity Statement of Opportunities overnight. It confirms significant progress on decarbonising our grid in the last six months, coupled with the urgent need for accelerated investment in new generation, energy storage and transmission to ensure reliable supply as fossil fuels exit the grid, flagging a staggering 209 gigawatt pipeline of new firmed #renewables proposals worth over A$250 billion, and highlighting how decarbonisation is unlocking massive regional employment and investment opportunities. Read more
The Safeguard Mechanism overhaul is imperfect, but it is a huge win after a lost decade of climate policy failure
Our latest take on the federal government’s overhaul of a centrepiece climate policy- the Safeguard Mechanism. Yes, it is imperfect. The unlimited use of offsets particularly problematic and they should be a last resort. However, it is a massive win – and opportunity – in that it provides the critical policy architecture for a permanent, high price on carbon, incentivising decarbonisation and investment in clean tech, and it must be understood in the context of the government’s ecosystem of major policy reforms that collectively make significant headway after a devastating decade of LNP policy failure. Read more