Our work

The Federal Government has announced $21.0bn of new funding initiatives under the Future Made in Australia Act strategic framework in Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ 2024-2025 Federal Budget last night. Adding to the ~$45bn of capital support in the 2023 budget, this is another substantial downpayment on the $100bn of new capital and budget support needed this decade to drive investment in zero emissions industries of the future for Australia. Read more

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

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

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

A full overview of our work and impacts across our program areas for the 6 months July-Dec 2023 Read more

The world is in a technology, trade and finance race as the energy transition takes hold and we grapple with the growing impacts of climate change and climate risk. Australia has one of the biggest investment, employment, and net export opportunities this century, but only if we proactively build a strategic national response proportional to the investment opportunity. In our submission with Climate Capital Forum, we call for a major public policy shift, at scale, to set the right market signals and strategically leverage the national balance sheet, and selectively provide public budget support to unlock and crowd-in private capital. Read more

The latest Climate Energy Finance update – read our comprehensive End of Year wrap, including the 2023 Report Card on the government’s policy progress for boosting Australia’s transition to becoming a renewable energy superpower. Read more

Founder of the Climate Capital Forum and one of The Australian’s Top 100 Green Energy Players Blair Palese says we need a new playbook for the decarbonising ballgame. A massive national strategic capital public investment program that establishes Australia as a zero-emissions trade and investment leader is required. Read more

Tim Buckley’s presentation to the ANU’s Rare Earth Conference Read more

We welcome and applaud the Treasurer’s focus today on 4 key industry and economic opportunities, which reflect the key priorities CEF and its partners have identified: refining and processing critical minerals; supporting manufacturing of generation and storage technologies, including batteries; producing renewable hydrogen and its derivatives like ammonia; and forging green metals including green iron. We need to see further details, but the Treasurer’s assertion that $225bn capital investment is needed by 2050 is too low by orders of magnitude, this timeframe is too late, and it reveals a too-cautious federal policy mindset that risks forgoing Australia’s opportunity to position itself as a leader in global cleantech supply chains as the world moves at breakneck speed to decarbonise. Read more

The $2bn top up for the federal Critical Minerals Facility pledged by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during his state visit to the US this week is an entirely insufficient response to the US$1 trillion industrial and energy stimulus of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The IRA is the biggest commitment of public funding in US history – and the single biggest opportunity for Australia this generation. Here’s why. Read more

Tim Buckley’s presentation for the Investment Innovation Institute on the global energy transition: how China leads the world in the global technology and investment race, how the US IRA changes everything; Australia’s Critical Minerals Strategy and how we can embody decarbonisation in our exports; and stockmarket examples of energy transition. Read more