Our work

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

CEF partially supports the proposed Climate Bill, but recommend it be strengthened to better align with the climate science, the clear and growing cost of inadequate action and the once-in-a-century opportunities of rapid decarbonisation for investment, jobs and cost of living. The absence of an strong interim emissions reduction target in 2035 is a particular concern, given deep cuts must be front loaded in the next decade if we are to have hope of preventing catastrophic climate change. Read more

Tim Buckley of CEF and Climate and Capital Forum founder Blair Palese argue that $100bn of government strategic public-interest capital investment into an Australian Renewables Industry Package and value-adding critical minerals industry development is needed to crowd in $200-300bn of private capital. This would be an appropriately ambitious response to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), commensurate with Australia’s massive domestic and export opportunity. Read more

As Tim Buckley writes, AEMO’s new 10 year outlook shows expedited approvals of renewables, storage and transmission can offset any reliability risks to electricity supply. Read more

A joint statement with the Clean Energy Investor Group, Smart Energy Council and Nexa Advisory responding to news that the NSW government’s electricity review will recommend delaying the 2025 closure of the Eraring coal power station, Australia’s largest. Read more

Tim Buckley of CEF and Blair Palese, founder of the Climate Capital Forum, review the key impacts of the game changing US Inflation Reduction Act, which is turbocharging the green transition, one year after its introduction, and set out the 5 key things Australia should to respond and leverage our huge opportunities renewables powered processing of world leading critical minerals and energy transition materials. Read more

Tim Buckley speaks at the Centre for Future Work’s National Manufacturing Summit on the global energy transition and implications for Australia Read more

June quarter wholesale electricity prices are down 59% year-on-year., a major relief after 18 months of unprecedented fossil fuel hyperinflation. There is a record 30GW of new renewable energy capacity now in the connection pipeline, but just 3GW was completed in financial year 2023. We need to see the rate of completions double to replace end-of-life coal power station capacity inevitably and predictably coming offline. Read more

While the drought and heatwaves are testing China’s climate resilience, China’s renewable scaling up remains strong during the first half of CY2023. Countering climate change requires efforts from all. We call for China to go even faster in accelerating its decarbonisation process, as well as call for concerted effort from the developed world economies. Read more

CEF’s new modelling shows that on-schedule closure of Australia’s largest coal power station, Eraring, in August 2025 is entirely doable with accelerated transition to rooftop solar and utility scale renewables plus storage – there are more than enough projects in the pipeline to replace capacity and the capital is ready and willing. Delay would cost the people of the state $200-400bn in compensation to Eraring owner Brookfield, money which should be spent on distributed solar and the RE buildout. NSW energy minister Penny Sharpe just needs to stand firm and deliver the enormous benefits of decarbonisation to NSW. Read more