Australia has now slipped from likely leader to obvious laggard in the green hydrogen race, significantly trailing other OECD countries in terms of the actual implementation of projects. So where have we gone wrong?

Although Australia is generally believed to hold an intermediate ranking position in international society, the idea of Australia as an energy superpower should not seem far-fetched. Arguably, Australia is already an energy superpower - but of the ‘non-renewable’ or ‘fossil-fuel’ variety – being the world’s largest exporter of coal, and one of the largest exporters of gas and uranium.

Labor is framing the transition not just as decarbonisation but as a green economic boom through manufacture of electrolysers, green steel, green cement and green fertiliser. If successful, this will amount to a green industrial revolution.

Offshore wind power (OWP) is emerging as the fastest growing sector in the global race towards renewables, and likely to emerge in just a few years as the largest segment in absolute terms. It has grown from accounting for just 1% of wind power capacity in 2010 to 10% by 2019 and is anticipated to reach 20% early in the 2020s.

Korea’s Green Transformation: Leveraging New Trade Opportunities

Cooperating With China on Climate Change

China and the United States. Together, the superpowers are responsible for more than 40% of global carbon emissions.

We develop a new way of analysing the state’s strategic role in the clean energy shift. We do so by synthesizing Schumpeterian understandings of ‘creative destruction’ and techno-economic change with cutting-edge developmental state theorizing centred on ‘developmental environmentalism’.

The article is on an important issue for energy policy- phasing out the use of coal for power generation. Based on a case study of closures of coal power plants in China’s Guangdong province, the researchers find that under certain circumstances, governments - especially those in the provincial and city levels - can and do act as change agents when it comes to retirement of coal fired power stations.

Australian coal exports to China plummeted last year. While this is due in part to recent trade tensions between Australia and China, our research suggests coal plant closures are a bigger threat to Australia’s export coal in the long term.

Australia doesn’t yet export renewable energy. But the writing is on the wall: demand for Australia’s fossil fuel exports is likely to dwindle soon, and we must replace it at massive scale.

China’s President Xi Jinping surprised the global community recently by committing his country to net-zero emissions by 2060. Prior to this announcement, the prospect of becoming “carbon neutral” barely rated a mention in China’s national policies.

As the COVID-19 pandemic devastates the global economy, there’s an opportunity for governments to support a green-led recovery. This involves spending fiscal stimulus on renewable energy and other clean technologies to create jobs while addressing climate change.

The Nobel Prize-winning US economist William Nordhaus fired a salvo recently when he published an article on how to drastically revamp international efforts to deal with climate change. He argued that climate negotiations operate according to a deeply flawed structure that has no chance of success, with no penalties for free-riding and non-membership. He proposed an alternative solution centred on ‘climate clubs’ made up of like-minded nations that would agree between themselves on fundamentals. These would include both a carbon price covering emissions and an agreed tariff on imports from countries that refuse to join the club or are expelled from it.

The chaos of COVID-19 has now hit global energy markets, creating an outcome unheard of in industrial history: negative oil prices. With the world’s largest economies largely in lockdown, demand for oil has stagnated.
Essentially, the negative prices mean oil producers are willing to pay for the oil to be taken off their hands because soon, they will have nowhere to store it.

Since the COVID-19 crisis began, Australia’s Morrison government has shown itself willing to cast off many of its long-held ideological positions, on everything from budget deficits to stimulus spending and minimum welfare payment levels. But the government appears determined to hold onto its energy policy and the Australian Liberal Party’s obsession with maintaining Australia’s links with fossil fuels

Australia is the world’s third largest fossil fuels exporter – a fact that generates intense debate as climate change intensifies. While the economy is heavily reliant on coal and gas export revenues, these fuels create substantial greenhouse gas emissions when burned overseas.

From an appalling environmental scorecard 20 years ago, China has pioneered a “global green shift” towards renewable energy and recycling. The country’s drive to dominate renewables manufacturing benefits both China and the world, by sending technology prices plummeting.

The Future of Trade

Presented by QUT Faculty of Law Intellectual Property and Innovation Law Research Program, QUT Institute for Future Environments, and QUT Chair in Digital Economy