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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

Our 6th and latest instalment on the Hindenburg washup: While Adani is the biggest private coal developer in the world, the Adani Group had also pledged to invest US$70bn in green industries this decade, suggesting at face value that a setback for Adani is a setback to India’s energy transition. CEF would argue otherwise. Prior to January 2023, Adani was, at best, walking both sides of the street, deploying greenwashing to raise foreign capital, and leveraging global capital markets to expand its fossil fuel interests as it leveraged crony capitalism at home. Read Tim Buckley’s latest analysis. Read more

The fifth and latest in our analyses of Adani in the light of research firm Hindenburg’s allegations of “the largest con in world history”. The Adani family conglomerate proudly professes its exceptionally high environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings. Its slogan says it all: “Growth with Goodness”. But while Adani group is one of the largest investors in green energy, it is also the largest private developer of new coal mines and coal-fired power plants in the world, and has won Government of India support to massively expand its fossil fuel related exposures with new coal-to-plastics plants, LNG import terminals, oil bunkers and gas reticulation systems throughout India. Tim Buckley looks at whether the green claims stack up Read more

CEF has tracked the Adani family for a decade, and their elevation has one key cornerstone – crony capitalism. Our close examination of financial and contractual interactions between government entities and the Adani Group shows that, to become the first amongst equals in India, the Adani family has had considerably more than its fair share of support, particularly since 2014. While the list is very long, in this analysis, Tim Buckley outline some examples below. Read more

Tim Buckley with some further reflections on the Adani crisis, noting the allegations from Hindenburg are not going to go away. For its part, Hindenburg is very comfortable with its legal position. They have effectively issued an open invitation to Adani to sue if they want to experience discovery. That challenge from Wall Street gives credibility to the substance of the report. Read more

Tim Buckley notes there are striking parallels between the origins of the collapse of Germany company Wirecard under the weight of the biggest corporate fraud in that country in decades, and the Adani crisis triggered by the Hindenburg report, including the failures of regulatory scrutiny. While Wirecard went bankrupt when its corporate wrongdoing was finally exposed, the Adani allegations are as yet unproven, and require close examination by the US SEC and Securities and Exchange Board of India. Read more

Tim Buckley has been a keen watcher of Adani for over a decade. Read his full analysis of the explosive allegations by US based research firm and activist short seller Hindenburg that the conglomerate has engaged in the “largest con in corporate history” involving accounting fraud, insider trading, and money laundering. Do the allegations stack up, what needs to be done, and what are the implications for Australia and Adani’s Carmichael coal mine, the subject of a massive decade long grassroots campaign that deprived the company of its social licence here. Read more

An historic week saw the federal govt legislate coal and gas price caps and bill rebates under its energy price relief plan, with an additional commitment to electrify everything, and a staggering endorsement from the market as prices on the electricity futures market dropped 50%. We also look at progress on decarbonisation in India, finding a doubling of RE installs rate is needed to hit Modi’s target of 450GW by 2030. Read more

With COP27 underway, the idea of developed countries supporting developing countries with more than just talk has already backslid from “compensation” to the more nebulous political speak of “cooperation and facilitation”. However, trends in the electricity sector in China and India are showing significant promise, and speak more meaningfully than watered-down global promises. Read more

Financial governance and risk expert Praveen Gupta looks at global moves to decarbonise finance, as the RBI consults on climate change with more than $84bn of debt at India’s leading financial institutions at risk from extreme weather events. (A version was first published in Illuminem.) Read more

A presentation by Nishtha Aggarwal, CEF Climate Finance Analyst, Australia and India Markets, to the Masters of International Development at Latrobe University on climate change and advocacy, including the role of climate finance and a case study of India’s decarbonisation trajectory. Read more

Newly released figures from India’s Central Electricity Authority (CEA) demonstrate the shift towards zero emissions generation, with 100% of net new capacity adds in the first half of FY2022/23 being variable renewable energy (VRE) at 98% and hydro-electricity at 2%. Read more