Today
Renewables are cheapest, even with poles, wires and batteries added in
CSIRO’s annual price comparison of energy sources include transmission and storage costs in renewables calculations for the first time. They still come out on top.
- Ben Potter
Yesterday
Cyclone Jasper’s damage bill mounts as rain eases
While rainfall eases in North Queensland, the cost wrought by Cyclone Jasper is rising.
- Updated
- Liam Walsh, Sarah Mitchell and Tess Bennett
This Month
Floods, heavy rain put squeeze on mango, sugarcane crops
The rain appears to be easing from severe floods in North Queensland, but some lingering concerns remain with agriculture.
- Liam Walsh
Rubbish tips get do-nothing climate subsidies worth millions: experts
Landfill operators are being given lucrative carbon credits for trapping methane they would not have released anyway, some academics say.
- Aaron Patrick
Cairns floods break 46-year record, close airport
The state faces days of heavy rain after some areas were hit with totals of more than a metre, the city’s airport shut and water levels passed 1977 highs.
- Updated
- Duncan Murray
- Exclusive
- Electric vehicles
PEP bets $250m on EV charging firm founded in a Sydney garage
Most of the cash will be used to drive EVSE’s growth and integration with Intellihub smart meters to help customers manage their charging and protect the grid.
- Ben Potter
- Opinion
- Energy transition
COP28 puts the heat on energy transition
The conference’s proposed measures could put the world back on course in its climate change response. What we need to see now is action from leaders in politics and business.
- Kerry Schott
Four key takeaways from the new energy market roadmap
Coal is dead, the consumer is king, rising costs are squeezing new transmission and utility-scale generation projects, and gas will play an indispensable but small role.
- Ben Potter
Victoria to offer discounts to switch stoves from gas to electric
The Victorian government has expanded its plan to end the use of consumer gas by offering discounts for residents upgrading to electric induction cooktops.
- Gus McCubbing
Is Labor’s green energy plan a Ponzi scheme or grid saviour?
This week on The Fin podcast, senior correspondent Jacob Greber on whether the government’s new renewable energy plan will work and how much it will cost.
COP28 deal says gas to play role in energy transition
Climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen hailed the stronger than expected COP28 outcome as a way to bolster Australia’s transition to renewable energy.
- Hans van Leeuwen
- Updated
- Energy transition
COP28 deal pledges fossil fuel ‘transition’ for first time
After a marathon round of backroom wrangling, the 198-nation summit endorsed a “transition away from” fossil fuels by 2050.
- Updated
- Hans van Leeuwen
- Opinion
- Energy transition
COP28 shows weaning the world off fossil fuels is hard to do
The hard reality is coal demand will be here for decades to come. Oil and gas are no different.
- Patrick Gibbons
- Opinion
- Energy transition
Methane is Australia’s missing COP28 opportunity
MethaneSAT, which will launch into orbit in 2024, will be a game changer for the energy sector’s abatement of a highly potent greenhouse gas.
- Charlotte Hanson
- Opinion
- The AFR View
COP28: Beware premature predictions of the death of fossil fuels
Whatever the final climate conference wording, given the clear lack of global consensus, we should be wary of predictions that oil’s days are numbered.
- The AFR View
- Analysis
- Carbon challenge
Will COP28 fail after dropping fossil fuel pledge?
For the Albanese government, and many others, the test of success or failure at COP28 is not necessarily a fossil fuel phase-out, but simply making progress.
- Hans van Leeuwen
COP28 draft agreement drops phase-out of fossil fuels
Australia is among the countries pushing back against the UAE’s suggested deal text, saying the draft was only a “step forward” not the needed “step change”.
- Hans van Leeuwen
Sprawling and costly: Can Australia host COP31 in just two years?
The conference, which could attract up to 80,000 people and puts pressure on transport, is likely to come to Australia in 2026. But the decision will be made next year.
- Hans van Leeuwen
- Updated
- Energy transition
Fossil fuel phase-out good for Australia, Bowen says
The climate and energy minister says if COP28 can agree to tough action on fossil fuels, it will create opportunities for Australia as a renewables superpower.
- Updated
- Hans van Leeuwen
- Opinion
- Energy transition
Energy transition needs gas, not nuclear
A rational decarbonising energy policy offers a middle path between the absolutists and the denialists.
- Craig Emerson
