Our work

It is brilliant to see that the federal government, having struck an agreement with the Greens and crossbench, has secured the passage through parliament tomorrow of its energy price relief plan. Meanwhile, the gas lobbying is gushing a torrent of threats and spin, determined to continue to line its own pockets at the expense of Australians. Read more

Paper #8 in our critical minerals series. The US$369bn IRA signed into law this year is the single biggest climate commitment in US history, and is triggering a monumental inflow of green capital which is transforming the US energy and economic landscape. CEF’s Tim Buckley and Matt Pollard take a close look at the deal book and policy context. Read more

National cabinet agreed on welcome measures today to curb the fossil fuel bill shock impacting Australians, including coal and gas wholesale price caps, $1.5bn in energy rebates and an energy security plan comprising the newly agreed capacity investment mechanism and the $20bn Rewiring the Nation strategy. Still to do: tax the fossil multinationals making obscene war profits from Australia’s sovereign public assets as they laugh all way to the bank. Read more

We wrap the news of the week including the energy price relief plan, the energy ministers’s agreement on a capacity investment mechanism that will trigger investment into firmed renewables, and we take a look at the tsunami of green capital inflow to the US off the back of its Inflation Reduction Act (aka Climate Bill). Read more

The new federal government has achieved something the LNP failed to deliver over a lost decade of energy policy chaos – a cooperative agreement with the state energy ministers on a capacity mechanism that will turbocharge firmed renewables and accelerate an orderly energy transition. Read more

We have done the math: multinational fossil fuel corporations will book a collective $120-140 billion gross profit in calendar year 2022. These war profiteers are inflicting untold pain on Australian households and business as energy bill shock exacerbates inflationary pressures. It’s past time for governments to step in on behalf of taxpayers and say “show me the money”. Read more

We track the energy news of the week – including the announcement of two of the world’s biggest windfarms in Victoria and QLD – as capital inflows to clean tech accelerate, driven by Australia’s increasingly ambitious climate, critical minerals and energy policies. Read more

The currently largely ineffectual federal Safeguard Mechanism, intended to drive down emissions by Australia’s largest emitters (currently > 100,000t CO2 pa) is under review. The SGM is a crucial tool for emissions reduction and the reform in train is a a test of the new government’s bona fides on decarbonisation. In this 2 page briefing, Tim Buckley notes that legislation – not regulation – is required, and if the SGM is to have the desired effect, the government must mandate an Avoid>Minimise>Mitigate>Offset hierarchy. Read more

Our latest update including the historic victory for decarbonisation at the AGL AGM, our deep dive into BlueScope’s plan to sink $1bn into carbon intensive blast furnace tech, and our most recent analyses of big banks’ climate efforts – this time focussing on NAB – and of the critical minerals industry, looking at Australian companies expanding offshore. Read more

A victory for impact investing this week after sweeping reforms at carbon dinosaur AGL’s AGM. We track the striking similarities between Sentient Impact Group / Climate Energy Finance’s report “One AGL: from laggard to leader” and AGL’s newly mandated transition plan, which sees it exit coal early and invest ~$20bn in renewables. Read more

With the major steelmaker’s AGM on Tuesday 22 November, Tim Buckley examines why BlueScope is planning to sink $1bn into outdated blast furnace tech at Port Kembla that would entrench huge carbon emissions at the heart of Australian steelmaking for decades to come, just as BlueScope US makes strides in decarbonisation. Read more

In paper #7 of CEF’s series on value adding critical minerals, Tim Buckley and Matt Pollard look at Australian companies expanding their operations beyond Australia’s borders with key international projects. Read more