Weekly Decarbonisation and Climate Update (14 September)

Climate Politics

Albanese government about to settle on Australia's 2035 climate target (ABC News): The Albanese government is about to make one of its biggest decisions since its thumping election win in May. It's about to settle on a 2035 climate target. But the timing is delicate. The number will only be announced after the prime minister has left the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in the Solomon Islands. Anthony Albanese has long argued being serious on climate change is the "entry fee" for credibility in the Pacific. He repeated the line yesterday in Honiara.

Labor plans to slash numbers for UN climate summit (The Australian Financial Review): The Albanese government will scale down the size of the COP31 climate summit to 30,000 delegates if its bid to host the conference is successful, as Labor readies itself for a last ditch lobbying effort to secure the event at this month’s United Nations meeting in New York. Documents published late last week put the potential size of a COP summit in Adelaide at more than 52,000 attendees, which would include heads of state, UN officials, media, sponsors, “observers” and their delegations.

Germany the winner if Australia and Tukey deadlocked on bid for climate summit (WA Today): Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has conceded there is no formal mechanism to resolve the diplomatic impasse between Australia and Turkey over which nation will host key United Nations climate talks next year. Australian climate advocates have been growing increasingly frustrated that Australia has been unable to convince Turkey to withdraw its bid, given the overwhelming support the Australian bid has among the group of UN nations set to make the decision.  

WA announced $60M funding for clean energy projects (Energy Source & Distribution): Developers of clean energy projects can now apply for funding from the second round of the Western Australian Government’s New Energies Industries Funding Stream. Up to $60 million will be available as a part of the Cook Government’s Investment Attraction Fund for eligible projects, including those focused on critical minerals processing, renewable hydrogen, green iron and steel along with carbon capture, utilisation and storage. The first round of the program allocated $60 million to five projects in 2024 from the inaugural New Energies Industries Funding Stream.

Labor backs green ‘go’ zones to speed up renewables rollout (The Australian Financial Review): Labor will introduce regional “go” and “no-go” zones for big infrastructure projects seeking environmental approval, in a move it says will help clear the backlog of renewable energy projects stuck in the planning system and meet its climate targets. On Tuesday, Environment Minister Murray Watt will announce that the use of regional planning zones for major project clusters will be the first legislated change to Labor’s revamped Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

Federal govt approves North West Shelf extension (Business News): Woodside Energy has secured approval for its proposal to extend the life of the Karratha gas plant through to 2070 with conditions, following months of negotiation with federal regulators.

Taxpayer-funded Clean Energy Finance Corporation floats $126b spend on shared renewable energy in the Pilbara (The West Australian): A report commissioned by the federal government’s ‘green bank’ has argued that $126 billion should be spent over the next 25 years on shared renewable energy infrastructure in the Pilbara. The monumental expenditure on the “base case” scenario means “Australia could save more than $30b”, according to the report produced by Marsden Jacob Associates for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Mining giants going it alone on decarbonisation would create “unnecessary duplication” and cumulatively cost $157b between now and 2050, the report said.

Murray Watt accuses Queensland government of taking 'ideological' approach to renewable energy (ABC News): The federal environment minister has criticised the Queensland government over what he has labelled an "ideological" approach to the development of renewable energy projects. Speaking at the Smart Energy Conference and Exhibition in Brisbane on Tuesday, Murray Watt accused the state government of cancelling renewable energy projects, "listening to local opponents", and "ignoring local supporters". His comments were delivered in a broader speech outlining environmental law reforms proposed by the federal government.

Investors skittish as Queensland shifts renewables goalposts (The Australian Financial Review): No new wind farms have applied for state planning approval in Queensland in 2025, amid growing concern that the state government’s approach to renewables is scaring off investors and threatening to undermine federal Labor’s clean energy targets. Environment Minister Murray Watt on Tuesday hit out at the Crisafulli government’s recent hostility to key renewables developments, arguing that the cancellation of a handful of major wind projects sent a message that the state did not want their business.

Why Woodside’s massive gas project has been delayed (The Australian Financial Review): The Albanese government’s strict new limits on nitrogen oxide emissions to protect ancient Indigenous rock art have been the major sticking point in the final approval of Woodside’s multi-billion dollar North West Shelf gas project in remote Western Australia. Almost four months after Environment Minister Murray Watt gave a provisional green light to extend the North West Shelf facility’s operation until 2070, Woodside and the government are yet to agree on conditions that underpin the final approval.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Super giant ART picks Macquarie for maiden $1b impact investment (The Australian Financial Review): Australian Retirement Trust has tipped $US650 million into a Macquarie green energy fund, marking its first so-called impact investment intended to deliver high returns to members while contributing to the betterment of society. The $350 billion industry super fund giant said its decision to award the mandate to a Macquarie-run fund, which invests in clean energy projects in developed markets, came after a year-long global search.

BHP scraps renewable energy projects, casting doubt on emissions targets (ABC News): Mining giant BHP has dumped plans to build a major renewable energy project at its flagship iron ore operations, sparking claims the company is slowly walking away from efforts to decarbonise. In 2023, BHP announced it would spend about $US2 billion ($3 billion) building more than 500 megawatts of large-scale wind, solar and battery projects to clean up and electrify its iron ore business in Western Australia's Pilbara region. Among those projects was a 50 megawatt solar farm at the company's Jimblebar mine and a 40 megawatt-hour battery in Newman, to be built at a combined cost of about $300 million.

Regulator outlines fears of Ais and battery trading collusion, but home batteries could save the day (Renew Economy): The Australian Energy Market Commission has finally published its report into the potential of AIs colluding to push up electricity prices, more than a year after the report was concluded, but says that the rapid growth in home batteries could offset some of the problems. The report from the AEMC, the market rule maker, says the rising use of algorithms to manage complex battery trading is creating the perfect conditions for tacit collusion between AIs. “The risks have increased in recent years due to two inter-related trends, an increase in information available to participants that has the potential to reveal information about competitors’ strategies, [and] the development of AI tools,” the report says.

Carbon Markets

Rio Tinto: A carbon credit bellwether (Australian Resources & Investment): Rio Tinto has signed on as a future buyer of carbon credits from Meldora, a new Australian platform designed to scale up land-based carbon capture and sustainable agriculture projects. The mining giant will act as a foundational offtaker, committing to purchase credits as the platform expands. Meldora launched this week with $200 million in funding from Canadian pension fund La Caisse and a further $50 million from the Australian Government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

Green Projects and Initiatives

Industry applauds Premier Roger Cook’s fast-track for green steel in Kwinana (The West Australian): A Kwinana pilot plant for green steel will likely be one of the first projects to be fast-tracked under sweeping changes to State development laws announced by Roger Cook. The Premier told business leaders at The West Australian’s Leadership Matters breakfast in Perth that a new State Development Bill would give WA coordinator general Chris Clark “teeth” with powers to issue time frame notices and modification orders to ensure priority projects do not stall. “We have to move faster and more assertively and we have to seize the opportunities that we have before us,” Mr Cook said on Monday.

Neoen proposes big new wind farm and giant eight-hour battery for Western Australia’s main grid (Renew Economy): Neoen Australia is moving ahead with plans to develop an up to 500 megawatt wind farm and eight-hour big battery in one of the windiest spots on Western Australia’s main grid, as the state scrambles to quit coal by the end of the decade. According to a state development application, the Yathroo Wind Farm Project is proposed for freehold land around 5 km south of Dandaragan, 6.3 km north of Regans Ford and 120 km north of Perth.

Alinta Energy widens merger talks to Singapore’s Sembcorp (The Australian Financial Review): Hong Kong-owned electricity and gas supplier Alinta Energy has been approached by listed Singaporean energy infrastructure player Sembcorp for a potential transaction as its owner examines options to fund clean power projects. The discussions are understood to be preliminary and are running alongside ongoing talks Alinta and its owner Chow Tai Fook Enterprises are having with larger rival EnergyAustralia on a potential $10 billion merger.

Data centre demand is new driver for SunCable project (PV Magazine): SunCable has announced the immediate focus for its flagship Australia-Asia Power Link (AAPowerLink) project is to build solar and battery energy storage at scale to supply customers in the Northern Territory (NT), including data centres, with the original idea of exporting power to Singapore now a longer-term target. “Our immediate focus is a pragmatic one,” the company said in a statement. “Building generation and storage capacity that can begin supplying customers in the near term, while laying the foundations for a larger, long-term energy export system.”

Wollemi Capital acquires ASX-listed renewable energy developer MPower (The Australian Financial Review): Climate-focused investment firm Wollemi Capital will invest more than $100 million in solar and battery projects that can be swiftly added to the national power grid after acquiring ASX-listed project developer MPower. Wollemi, co-founded by former Macquarie banker Tim Bishop and Paul Hunyor, bought MPower’s renewable energy and battery storage business for $19 million, and has pledged to invest in building out its project pipeline, with a focus on mid-scale commercial batteries.

Transgrid opens EOI for innovation fund (Energy Magazine): Transgrid is calling Australia’s brightest innovators, researchers, startups and energy technology leaders to help accelerate new technologies and concepts that could shape the future of Australia’s electricity transmission network and deliver real benefits to consumers. As part of a $4.7 million innovation fund, Transgrid is seeking expressions of interest to partner with Australia’s largest transmission provider on cutting-edge projects that explore how electricity demand can be flexibly managed, making the grid cleaner, more reliable, and more cost-effective. Transgrid General Manager of System Resilience, Robbie Aherne, said the transmission provider’s Demand Management Innovation Allowance (DMIA) will accelerate innovations that help Australia further enable the transition to renewable energy. 

NSW gives quick planning approval for Hunter renewable zone built around existing lines (Renew Economy): The NSW transition plan from coal to renewables has taken a small but significant step forward with news that planning approval has been given in relatively quick time to the Hunter-Central Coast renewable energy zone. The Hunter zone is notable because it is largely built around existing infrastructure, using existing easements to upgrade its network so it can host an additional one gigawatt of network transfer capacity. It is the first of its type in Australia, with the other zones in NSW – notably Central West Orana, the South West and New England REZs requiring significant investment in new transmission lines, and a complicated process to plot a route and gain community support.

Acen seeks green light for 12-hour duration pumped hydro project (PV Magazine): Acen Australia, the local energy platform of Philippines-headquartered conglomerate Ayala Group, has submitted plans for the estimated $1.8 billion (USD 1.19 billion) Phoenix pumped hydro storage project to the federal government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act queue for review. The project, being developed near Wellington within the New South Wales (NSW) government’s Central-west Orana Renewable Energy Zone, will have storage sufficient to deliver power output of 800 MW for up to 12 continuous hours, with total storage for a maximum of 15 hours.

Other Matters of Interest

Crucial decisions are ahead in the never-ending climate wars (WA Today): The coming weeks loom as an important period in the seemingly never-ending climate wars, with Australia’s green credentials to be put to the test on three fronts. The first involves impending advice from the Climate Change Authority on a new national 2035 emissions reduction goal. The independent authority, chaired by former NSW Liberal treasurer and climate change minister Matt Kean, is expected to recommend a target to Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen in the 65 to 75 per cent range.

Cheap power to the people could shift the dial for renewables in the regions (The Conversation): Australia’s energy story is at a turning point. Demand for electricity is rising rapidly as homes, industries, and transport systems electrify. The nation is also under pressure to cut emissions from its energy sector and elsewhere. At the same time, some people don’t want renewable energy projects built in their area. So how do we meet all these challenges, and deliver energy that is cleaner, cheaper and more reliable than what we have today? Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has proposed one idea, urging renewable developers to provide cheap power to local communities in a bid to win support for projects such as wind and solar farms

Local governments face soaring cost of climate change (Australian Institute of Research): Local government revenue is not keeping pace with the rapidly rising costs of climate change, according to new analysis by The Australia Institute. The analysis finds that the costs of climate change to local councils – such as repairing roads, drainage, parks and community facilities after floods, storms, and fires – are increasing far faster than local government revenue. The insured costs of climate change are now 12 times higher than 20 years ago, while local government revenue is only three times higher.

Offshore wind was touted as a key part of Australia’s energy transition – but does it still have a future? (The Guardian): For many Australians, the scale of offshore wind projects can be hard to fathom. These powerful machines, designed to harness the strong and consistent winds blowing over the ocean, are colossal, with blade tips reaching up to 350m – higher than our tallest skyscrapers. If everything falls into place, Australia’s first offshore wind project could have turbines in the water before 2032. The government has talked up its prospects of playing a huge role in Australia’s energy transition.

Smarter skies (Energy Magazine): Drone technology is transforming Australia’s energy future, and Enerven is at the forefront. Across the country’s vast and varied landscapes, the company is advancing safety, efficiency and precision with its drone technology program. From remote asset inspections to large-scale civil mapping and support for renewable energy projects, Enerven’s drone innovation connects communities and delivers smarter, safer infrastructure outcomes.