Skip to navigationSkip to contentSkip to footerHelp using this website - Accessibility statement
Advertisement
Policy

Carbon challenge

News and analysis on the obstacles and opportunities in the transition to a net-zero economy.

Sign up to our weekly Carbon Challenge newsletter.

Sign up now

Latest

The NSW government of Premier Chris Minn is negotiating with Origin Energy to keep its giant Eraring coal power station open after August 2025.

First coal power increase in seven years spotlights Eraring talks

A surge in coal generation in NSW during the March quarter has thrown a spotlight on negotiations between Origin Energy and the state government to postpone closing the nation’s largest power station. 

  • 53 mins ago
  • Ben Potter
“Government is going to need to play a role,” said Greg Combet.

Bet ‘significant’ public money on renewables stakes: Combet

The incoming chair of the nation’s sprawling $212 billion Future Fund says it’s time to return to public investment in green energy.

  • Jacob Greber
EIG now owns a minority stake in Chevron’s Gorgon project in Western Australia.

Origin Energy suitor EIG nabs stakes in three major LNG projects

The private equity group, partly owned by Saudi Aramco, has made three investments in ventures run by Woodside, Chevron and Shell and will open a local office.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith

Green premiums are real, says aluminium boss

Electric vehicle makers are refusing to pay a green premium for low-carbon nickel but Capral says customers are paying an extra 5 per cent for clean aluminium.

  • Peter Ker and Lap Phan

Sims questions solar panels as report sounds alarm on coal jobs

The green energy advocate’s caution comes as Labor looks to fund early retirements of coal power station workers, some earning up to $170,000 a year.

  • Jacob Greber
Advertisement

This Month

Atlassian’s low-carbon skyscraper is ‘out of the ground’

The work-from-home revolution has failed to kill the $1.5b Atlassian Central project near Sydney Central Station, with a key construction milestone now passed.

  • Updated
  • Peter Ker and Lap Phan
Rooftop solar adoption has taken off.

Want Australian-made solar? Be prepared to pay $1500 more

SolarQuotes’ Ronald Brakels says there are probably enough consumers willing to pay a premium for locally made panels for a manufacturer to make a go of it.

  • Ben Potter

March

Alva Beach. The Great Barrier Reef has had five mass coral bleaching events in the past eight years.

How the McLaren F1 team is helping save the Great Barrier Reef

British Formula One race team McLaren deployed engineers to help the Great Barrier Reef Foundation speed up its coral spawning program.

  • Mark Ludlow
From left: SunDrive’s Vince Allen, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, AGL shareholder Mike Cannon-Brookes, Tesla chairwoman Robyn Denholm, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.

AGL, Cannon-Brookes vying for $1b in solar manufacturing grants

SunDrive, backed by the Atlassian billionaire, is among groups including 5B and Tindo who want to use the taxpayer funds to expand local panel production.

  • Updated
  • Angela Macdonald-Smith and Ben Potter
Viva Energy CEO Scott Wyatt with OTR Group founder Yasser Shahin when announcing the takeover last April.
Viva Energy CEO Scott Wyatt with OTR Group founder Yasser Shahin, who have agreed a $1.1bn deal for Viva to buy Shahin’s “On the Run” network of convenience retailing stores.

Viva fires up convenience roll-out after locking away OTR

The completion of the $1.2 billion takeover kicks off the nationwide expansion of the On the Run brand, which will replace Coles Express at Viva’s fuel stations.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Advertisement
Cargill is looking to process  canola grown on WA farms into oil for the booming biofuel market.

Cargill enters biofuel fray in fresh blow to GrainCorp growth plans

The global grains giant is working with a co-operative controlled by thousands of WA farmers on plans to tap into the booming market for biofuels.

  • Brad Thompson

Business fears Fair Work intervention in power closures

Business groups fear Labor’s Net Zero Transition Authority legislation will expose them to union-initiated disputes as coal- and gas-fired power stations close.

  • Updated
  • Jacob Greber and David Marin-Guzman
The Yallourn coal power station in Victoria, the country’s most carbon-intensive, is due to run until 2028.

Victoria’s gas aversion is driving emissions higher, energy users say

Industry figures say Victoria’s attitude is raising energy prices and emissions and preventing the closure of coal power stations

  • Updated
  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Resources Minister Madeleine King.

Labor pulls gas bill after Greens threaten car emission reforms

Labor halted an offshore gas regulation bill the Coalition said it would support after the Greens threatened to retaliate by scuttling Labor’s car policy.

  • Jacob Greber
Matthew Callachor from Toyota Australia addresses the media during a joint press conference with Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Catherine King and representatives of the motoring industry, at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday 26 March 2024. fedpol Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

‘Get on with it’: Car makers accept Labor fuel policy – over to Greens

Citing strong support from climate groups, Labor pressed Adam Bandt to drop a threat to scuttle the government’s signature transport pollution reduction plan.

  • Jacob Greber and Simon Evans
Santos’ 2017 Dassault Falcon is for use “by the board and executive team”.

Jet costs cloud proxy adviser support for Santos

CGI Glass Lewis raised “concerns” over the use of a corporate jet for top management, but it and ISS backed both the remuneration report and chairman Keith Spence’s re-election.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Exxon’s large West Barracouta domestic gas project came online in 2021.

Australia dropped the ball on energy security: Exxon

Forecast gas shortfalls in the southern states cannot be blamed on Queensland’s LNG exports, one of the east coast’s biggest gas suppliers says.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith

‘It’s a lot cheaper than buying a Tesla’: low-carbon milk has arrived

Dairy producer links up with Tasmanian start-up to produce the world’s first low-emissions milk.

  • Gus McCubbing
Senex CEO Ian Davies says it will soon be too late to address Australia’s gas supply problem.

Gas CEOs dial up warnings as ‘crunch time’ looms

Senex CEO Ian Davies and APA Group’s Adam Watson will warn of a “desperate” need for new gas supply to help cut emissions, and prevent higher costs for customers.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Climate investors are still wary of risk-return profile for potential technologies.

These are the biggest fears for renewables investors

Finding the right blend of risk and return is the biggest headache for climate investors, a new survey shows.

  • Jacob Greber
Advertisement
BHP’s Mike Henry tells the China Development Forum its steelmakers are different.

BHP’s Mike Henry argues Chinese steelmakers deserve a break

Big miners are facing pressure to detail their investments into green steel and reduce their scope three emissions. But Chinese smelters as a whole are more efficient than the EU’s.

  • Ayesha de Kretser
Mike Cannon-Brookes.

How Sun Cable could be a loser, yet a winner

Mike Cannon-Brookes’ company is set to lose the race to lay a 4000-kilometre cable to send solar energy out of the desert and under the oceans.

  • Updated
  • Hans van Leeuwen
Tritium has closed its Brisbane factory and consolidated its operations in the United States to ensure its financial survival.

Nasdaq poised to kick Brisbane-based Tritium off the exchange

This is the second delisting notice the fast charger company has received from the US exchange after the underperformance of its stock, and it says it will appeal.

  • Mark Ludlow
Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen announced mandatory pollution caps for cars.

Green policy car crash complicates Labor’s election outlook

A series of competing and interlinked priorities are colliding in Labor’s Senate, where all eyes are turning to the next election.

  • Jacob Greber

Glencore abandons coal production cap as another climate pledge fails

Five years after it promised to cap annual coal production at 150 million tonnes, Glencore has withdrawn the policy.

  • Peter Ker