Spark Club Podcast

Highlights China Cleantech Exports Boom Lauri Myllyvirta @CREA notes value of China’s exports of clean energy technologies hit a new all-time record in July, passing the previous high from March 2023. China exported $18.4bn worth of solar and wind power equipment, EVs and batteries during the month. Australia Brazil Chamber of Commence Forum ABCC business forum in the lead up to COP30, Organised by the wonderful Mara Bun. We also head about Brazil looking to develop world leading green iron projects. Lowlights Qld LNP State Government Capture by the Fossil fuel Industry looks complete Climate science deniers in the State LNP have stopped Queensland’s powerful progress towards energy transition and decarbonisation, taking heart at the stupidity of Trump in the US to replicate his corruption of democracy Last week’s decision to pull legislation enabling the development of Westwind’s 1.2GW Forest Wind project in a state pine forest – a monoculture with low biodiversity – creates massive investor uncertainty. Meanwhile, building on Adani’s success in winning a 7 year royalty holiday for their Galilee coal mine from the LNP. Rumours that the development of the Galilee Coal Basin is back on the agenda, most likely led by climate science denying Gina and her sidekick billionaire mate, Clive. Bowden Lead Mine progressing in NSW Environmental Solicitor Elaine Jonston is working with the local community of Mudgee to protect them against a proposed lead-zinc-silver mine development 2km from a school. BHP defers decarbonisation Really disappointing to hear BHP has walked back their decarbonisation investments, cancelling solar and BESS in the Pilbara even as they say mining EV technologies are not commercially viable as yet. Main Story EU Delegation to WA re Green Hydrogen and Iron Tim attended and spoke at a Green Hydrogen and Iron forum in Perth organised by the Danish and German Governments to develop EU-Australia strategic agreements in decarbonisation of industry. The 30 strong delegation from the EU spent 3 days touring the Pilbara and Midwest WA, the two major areas of iron ore mining, and the locations for potential DRI and green iron refineries. A follow-on private meeting with the WA Premier was set for this week to try to seal inter-government cooperation for this geopolitically important FOA deal in green iron for Australia to proceed toward FEED and FID and then into construction. Tim’s hope is Minister Bowen gets to announce 3 lighthouse green iron deals as president of COP31, leveraging public-private bilateral / trilateral deals with Germany, China and Korea/Japan Coming up Hopefully this month we will see if Adelaide is to host COP30 next November 2026, in partnership with the Pacific. The process remains opaque and tortuous, and bizarrely if Australia cant convince Turkey to pull out, we both lose and Germany gets to host it. We also have the National Risk Assessment for Climate report pending, its sitting on Minister Bowen’s desk, alongside Dr Frank Jotzo’s final carbon leakage review report, and the 2035 NDC for Australia. Lets hope Bowen listens to the climate science and sets our target at 75% rather than the BCA’s total lack of ambition going for more like 60%.  

Highlights Adelaide Green iron conference Tim attends and presents at the WEF / Greenhouse green iron event, with almost 200 people from government, industry, think tanks and finance talking about the opportunities for green iron projects. A key need is for Australia to get a couple of proposals to FID and into construction, and this is a key opportunity should Australia win #COP31 – to announce bilateral agreements and public-private support for a German-Australia, a China-Australia and a Japan-Korea-Australia trilateral deal into FID. China’s emissions down - Clean-energy growth helped China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fall by 1% year-on-year in the first half of 2025, extending a declining trend that started in March 2024. Lowlights Canberra - Not getting allocated funds off the table and out the door Energy Renaissance goes into receivership BHP  BHP Results this past week shows a distinct lack of pressure for BHP to show any serious climate effort, claiming EV technologies aren’t ready, and BHP has deferred any material investment till next decade! Main Story - Diesel Fuel Rebate subsidy reform CEF’s new report on Diesel Fuel Rebate subsidy reform “Transition Tax Incentive: Reforming Fuel Tax Credits into a Decarbonisation Tailwind” A policy proposal to phase-out the fuel tax credit scheme for its largest beneficiaries with a transition tax incentive scheme to accelerate electrification and decarbonisation. Since the Fuel Tax Act 2006 (starting FY07), the FTC Scheme has provided $123bn in diesel subsidies to FY25. Beyond this, by FY30, it will have provided $184bn in subsidies. What’s coming up? A Green Hydrogen and Iron conference in Perth 4-5 Sept 2025, building momentum towards a German-Austral ia bilateral green iron agreement.

Spark Club - Linda Romanovska Introduction to Linda to provide context for the conversation Highlights Recent trip to Canberra with Climate Capital Forum International Court of Justice Opinion and the visit of Simon Stiell to Australia Lowlights The confusion and unproductive distraction cause by the “Omnibus” process – formally aimed at “simplification”, but realistically is “deregulation” of corporate sustainability. Main Story Europe Repeated, and unrelenting commitment to the EU Green Deal Objectives re-enforced on key recent policy documents, such as the “Competitiveness Compass”. It sets the new direction of the EU organised under 3 pillars: Pillar I: Closing the innovation gap Pillar II: A joint roadmap for decarbonisation and competitiveness – Clean Industrial Act Pillar II: Reducing excessive dependencies and increasing security. What’s coming up? Finalisation of the 2040 target - amending the Climate Law to include a legally binding target of net 90% GHG emissions reduction by 2040 (in time for COP 30) Probably joint climate ambition announcements with China

Highlights Australia’s Federal Senate Disinformation inquiry ARENA award to Calix $45m Allegra Spender Productivity and Tax Roundtable Lowlights Lithium Hydroxide Refinery Write-off by IGO Main Story The Race to 82% Renewables  AEMO’s Quarterly Energy Dynamics 2QCY2025 Methane gas generation plays an important but small and progressively declining role 25% upscaling of the CIS Big BESS News What’s coming up? CEF hoping Minister Bowen will go the top end of the CCA’s 65-75% reduction target. Australia is yet to win the presidency of #COP31, if we do, that will be a key priority for CEF’s Caroline Wang over the coming 15 months. End

Highlights Our first highlight  - the Capacity Investment Scheme.  South Australia’s high RE % record Green Steel subsidies from South Korea US invests MP Materials a US Rare Earths materials Lowlights Labor can’t seem to kick the fossil fuel habit heat pump numbers in NSW Main Story – China China's State Grid Energy Research Institute expects amazing deployment numbers EU is shifting on China Govt intervention on disorderly low-price competition Prime Minister Albanese's official visit to China from July 12 to 18, at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang.  What’s coming up? Climate Capital Forum to Federal Parliament 28-29th July. And milestone coming up for Nicolette Boele, MP for Bradfield.  Enjoy the podcast.     

Intro -  The Resources, Energy & Industry Innovation Forum (REIIF) in Dubbo The Highlights * Tim's TED X Sydney * Net-Zero Export Target Proposal: ANU’s Frank Jotzo and Annette Zou * Heavy Equipment Decarbonisation: BHP signs MoU with China’s XCMG * China's Cleantech Outbound Investment (OFDI): China building cleantech infrastructure abroad (e.g., 10GWh EV battery plant in France for Renault). $170B tracked in cleantech OFDI since 2023 The Lowlights * For a 2nd time - The Albanese Government approved the North West Shelf expansion. The decision will put 4.4 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere in the coming decades. That’s the equivalent of approving 12 new coal fired power stations The Big Story this week * Australian Wind Conference is coming up on the 17 & 18th July in Melbourne. * Australia has commissioned just 14GW of wind in the last decade, China did 20GW of new wind in just the first four months of 2025. * Much more needs to be done in the onshore wind sector in Australia if we're going to hit our 82% RE target by 2030.  What's coming up * Climate Capital Forum – Federal Parliament – Late July

The Highlights * Labor's re-election  * Bradfield recount - a celebration of the integrity of our voting system * Labor's Residential Battery Program - Minister Bowen re-commits to his election pledge of $2.3bn home and business BESS subsidy * Australia on track to see utility BESS increase 8x to 16GW by end 2027 The Lowlights * The Albanese Government approved the North West Shelf expansion. The decision will put 4.4 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere in the coming decades. That’s the equivalent of approving 12 new coal fired power stations * Queensland Deputy Premier rejecting a 450MW Wind farm and BESS - climate science denialism in the LNP strikes again The Big Story this week * China emissions peaked in March 2024, and now for 12 months have plateaued and marginally declined * 4MCY2025 thermal power generation in China down 3.6% yoy  * China installs 46GW of solar in just the single month of April 2025 What's coming up * A carbon market price path towards an Asian CBAM - new Climate Energy Finance report released next week

Great conversation recorded at the How to Lobby Canberra at the live Spark Club event at EnergyLab in Sydney. Thanks to Kylea (Pronounced Kylie) Tink and Blair Palese for an open and honest scorecard on how the cleantech and climate sector is performing in Canberra. The 'Shine Baby Shine' side shone on the night. The Cleantech / Climate industry has work to do in;  1. Aligning our message 2. Funding our positive message directly to the public, and in Canberra 3. Maturing as an industry, if we're going to be taken seriously This is a REDACTED podcast of our conversation on the night. As you'll hear, it's always worth coming along to the live Spark Club events in Sydney if you're able to.  Thanks again to Kylea and Blair for coming along to Spark Club and sharing this valuable conversation in the public domain.   

Tim Buckley joins the Spark Club regular podcast in the lead up to the Australian Federal Election on the 3rd May 2025.  Highlights China 1QCY2025 electricity statistics. Battery Energy Storage BESS announcements continue at a rapid speed and scale, with proposals advancing across Australia almost daily. China’s response to the US trade war Lowlights Rolled into the Main Story this week.  Main Story New Climate Energy Finance report: “COALITION’S NUCLEAR FOLLY WOULD COST AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY AT LEAST $4.3 TRILLION BY 2050” What’s coming up? The Australian Federal election on the 3rd of May, will Labor win? 

In our first Live Spark Club event for 2025 Danny Kennedy joins us to share his recent experience on the ground in Pakistan and Bangladesh where he witnessed first hand the Energy Transformation underway with rapid deployment of solar PV.  Danny shares the positive effect of China's Five Year Plans and the flywheel effect of low cost solar PV, battery storage and EV's deployed in new markets.  We also discuss Australia as a beacon of successfully integrating high renewable energy assets onto our grid and how our leadership should be seen as an opportunity to build strong commercial relationships with our immediate Asian neighbours. And the opportunity for Australian to unlock the value of low cost energy in processing our iron ore, polysilicon etc, to bolster our economy and much needed exports.     Danny remains a solar rooftop revolutionary and shares great stories of optimism, and challenges from his time travelling and learning from economies moving from energy transtion to energy transformation.  Links to books mentioned in our convesation; More and More and More https://www.penguin.com.au/books/more-and-more-and-more-9780241718896 Stellar https://www.amazon.com.au/Stellar-world-beyond-limits-there/dp/1067046402 Spark Club Live Event - How to Lobby Canberra https://events.humanitix.com/how-to-lobby-canberra Enjoy the podcast