It comes only days after I wrote up a report that found millions of people living on the expanding outskirts of Australia’s major cities face an increasing risk of urban wildfires similar to the deadly blazes in Los Angeles last year... What a time to be alive!
What a great start to 2026... 😬
- Australia is bracing for catastrophic fire risk in parts of Victoria on Friday
- Country-wide we are facing the worst heat wave since the Black Summer bushfires in the summer of 2019-2020
-Melbourne recorded its hottest temperature since January 2020 on Wednesday
hah, I swear this is a universal gripe for journos. Your eds push back a story, then a few weeks later you see someone else has written it. In any case thanks for sharing!
Great story!
"Documents released under Freedom of Information show the company last year was concerned that its aging Darwin liquefied natural gas plant (DLNG) could be forced to achieve net zero emissions as part of its huge new Barossa gas project in the Timor Sea."
Great episode of the Zero podcast with my colleague @akshatrathi.bsky.social this week about what climate tech is really making waves vs. what’s just low-carbon smoke and mirrors.
Well worth a listen for any fellow renewable/climate nerds out there!
6/ It also comes as global coal consumption rises to a record year after year, despite efforts to boost deployment of renewables and curb emissions. Trump has led a push to prop up the industry, while other major polluters like China & India also continue to dig up more of the dirtiest fossil fuel.
5/ Queensland is one of Australia’s most coal-dependent states — generating 65% of its electricity needs in 2024 from the fuel, according to BloombergNEF. The state made A$45.8B in coal exports in the year through May & A$5.5 billion of royalties in the financial year through June.
4/ WWF’s Australian branch described it as “short-sighted.” and a "roadmap to more fires, floods and heat waves, and more mass-bleaching events."
QLD has been hit by climate change in recent years, including more cyclones and floods & heat-induced bleaching of the iconic Great Barrier Reef.
3/ Analysts and climate groups immediately criticized the move. It sends “uncertain signals for future investment in Queensland’s clean energy supply” and imperils Australia’s goal to reduce emissions between 62% and 70% on 2005 levels by 2035, BloombergNEF analyst Sahaj Sood told me.
2/ A quick recap: QLD will keep its state-owned coal generators operating for "as long as they are needed in the system and supported by the market," said Treasurer David Janetzki last week.
1/ Last week Queensland reversed its plans to close its coal-fired coal plants
The move threatens Australia's goal to more than double renewable generation by the end of the decade.
Here's what the data shows about why that matters, & what impact it will have on the climate and energy policy.
The surging price tag of wildfires, in one chart
Wildfires are getting worse — and a lot more expensive for the rest of us.
Umair Irfan for @vox.com: www.vox.com/climate/4635...
The US government is shutting down, with agencies activating contingency plans that sideline hundreds of thousands of federal workers and halt a wide range of services.
See how key agencies will be affected: bloom.bg/46GXLsJ
Hard to say. The big difference is that Gladstone mainly powers the Boyne aluminum smelter, & it sounds like the closure is tied to that contract expiring. Yallourn/Eraring are privately owned, so linked to wholesale prices. IE early closure could risk electricity price volatility, blackouts etc
#NEWS | One of Australia’s biggest coal-fired power plants is set to close six years earlier than expected.
Gladstone, which accounts for >7% of Aus' coal-generation capacity, is expected to retire in 2029 instead of 2035.
Its closure will mean ~4 million mt less coal being burned each year.
This was an interesting interview and story to write.
Nuveen's Global Head of Clean Energy also told me he expects to commit more capital locally over the next three years, with onshore wind among the potential opportunities.
"An Orsted-backed wind farm venture off the Rhode Island coast can resume construction during a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s stop-work order." Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
#SCOOP | American asset manager Nuveen plans to spend as much as A$500 million on a solar and battery project in Australia within the next year, as political uncertainty clouds the outlook for clean energy in the US. It will be the firm’s first green-energy investment in Australia. #Energynews ⚡
This has helped us very quickly jump into the world's top five big battery markets, after being a laggard for a very long time. But batteries are certainly booming elsewhere too, because they are crucial to the transition (and usually quite profitable)
A large part of why Aus is having a battery boom is because we have the highest per capita rooftop solar in the world, which in turn has made our power market incredibly volatile. Higher volatility = more profits for batteries, because they can buy when prices are low and sell high.
It's certainly a large range! I would be very surprised if we overshoot or update the target given Australia's ongoing economic reliance on fossil fuels
Line chart showing that there's been a rapid escalation in how quickly the world installs a gigawatt of solar power capacity.
Time for the world to install a gigawatt of solar power capacity
2004: A year
2010: ~ a month
2015: ~ a week
Now: < A day
ourworldindata.org/data-insight... 🧪
Yeah. The wild thing is that back in the day it was actually seen as being a 'green' solution. It was sometimes made out of recycled materials, and didn't need to be watered. This meant that it was installed pretty widely during the Millennium Drought
BNEF chart showing Australia's coming battery boom. Utility-scale battery uptake is forecast to grow.
Australia’s battery boom is getting even bigger.
⚡ Latest tender under Capacity Investment Scheme awarded contracts for 4.1GW / 15.4GWh of storage.
⚡ CIS to back 14GW of new clean capacity by 2030.
BNEF sees utility-scale batteries in Australia hitting 20GW by 2035, up from just 3.3GW in July.
Reminds me of a deep-dive my colleagues did a few years ago about the impact of of fires on women & children. They interviewed the families of a 4 year old who needs meds twice a day to breathe, a young girl with mobility issues + difficulty balancing and babies born underweight / early / unwell.
I helped do a story about this a few years ago. Learning about the risks of fake grass was totally eye opening for me. The little rubber crumbs that are used on fake lawns can be washed away, getting into waterways. The grass can get so hot that it causes burns, and usually can't be recycled!
I helped do a story about this a few years ago. Learning about the risks of fake grass was totally eye opening for me. The little rubber crumbs that are used on fake lawns can be washed away, getting into waterways. The grass can get so hot that it causes burns, and usually can't be recycled!
This is a very complicated question, you should IB me and we can chat! Aus leads the world on rooftop solar, has been doing very well on batteries, and reasonably well on onshore wind. But we have also run into a lot of issues with planning and transmission infrastructure which are holding us back.
Sorry I missed this! I have messaged you on Linkedin
