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NATIONAL

Electrification has a crucial role to play in ensuring energy security and prosperity, according to Australia’s Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen and EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen.

In a joint statement, the two ministers agreed to work together “on a new global initiative on electrification”.

The initiative will build on the momentum of the Global Energy Transition Forum and represents a significant opportunity to rally international action around electrification as a climate, economic and energy security imperative, they said.

COP31 President Murat Kulum also emphasised electrification in his remarksto the Copenhagen Climate Ministerial.

The Department of Agriculture is reviewing how agricultural emissions inhibitor products should be regulated in Australia.

Methane inhibitors (such as the seaweed Asparagopsis) can be fed or applied to grazing animals to reduce methane emissions. Methane from livestock accounts for most of Australia’s agricultural emissions, and about 13% of national emissions.

Nitrification inhibitors improve nitrogen fertiliser efficiency and reduce the amount of nitrogen leaching from fertilisers into waterways and aquifers.

According to a departmental discussion paper, the current regulatory framework for these inhibitors is widely seen as “fragmented, incomplete and ambiguous”.

Statutory development - right to repair. Treasury is consulting on a proposed expansion of Australia’s motor vehicle repair information sharing scheme so that it also includes farm machinery.

The existing Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Information Sharing Scheme (MVIS) has operated since mid-2022.

The motor vehicle scheme specifies that information used to diagnose, repair, service, modify or dismantle motor vehicles must be made available on fair and reasonable commercial terms to Australian repairers.

The National Farmers Federation has welcomed the proposed reforms.

The CEFC has committed up to $10 million to support the deployment of more than 100 Sunswap Endurance fully electric truck refrigeration units.

The units are solar-assisted, with PV panels located on top of the units. They will be sold in Australia by Protran Solutions.

The 19 new renewables projects that were successful in the latest Capacity Investment Scheme tender round will deliver the largest ever boost to Australia’s main electricity grid, according to Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen.

The successful projects, announced on the weekend, will support 7.8GW of new wind and solar generation and a further 7.9GWh in battery storage.

The projects will unlock an estimated $17 billion in private investment and create an estimated 19,000 construction jobs, Bowen said.

“Nearly $1.2 billion in social licence commitments will deliver shared benefits across local communities,” the Minister added.

The projects will also use more than $257 million worth of Australian steel.

The next CIS tender opens today and will target 5GW of renewable generation. It will include a dedicated capacity allocation for projects that commit to equity and/or revenue sharing agreements with First Nations communities.

DCCEEW has released a research report on decarbonising commercial buildings, which was prepared by the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute.

“Decarbonising the built environment is possible using technologies that are commercially available, and the sector is seen as an opportunity for early action,” the report says.

The report notes that governments have tried to use a wide range of grants and rebates to attempt to encourage commercial building decarbonisation, but these are often still not providing a compelling business case.

“Internationally, policy measures are moving towards regulation to create drivers for asset owners to upgrade their buildings,” the report points out.

For example, the EU’s revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive sets minimum energy performance standards for commercial buildings, and seeks to create a phased wave of building renovations to make the building stock compatible with net-zero emissions by 2050.

“In Singapore, building energy performance is benchmarked, and building owners must create an energy efficiency improvement plan and implement its recommendations within three years,” the report adds.

The Investor Group on Climate Change and the Queensland Investment Corporation have jointly released a guide to doing physical climate risk assessments for infrastructure assets.

DCCEEW has released the summary report of a desktop evaluation of the Reef 2050 Plan for the years 2021 to 2025.

The Department of Industry has released new guidance on regulatory requirements for removing oil and gas property and infrastructure from Commonwealth waters.

DCCEEW says it plans to boost minimum winter environmental flows from Menindee Lakes into the lower Darling/Baaka River from about 200ML per day to about 400ML per day.

Fish scientists describe this higher flow as a “recovery baseflow” that is designed to support the survival of young fish, especially Murray Cod.

Over the past decade, the river has faced repeated challenges, DCCEEW says.

At times flow has stopped completely, sometimes for more than a year. There have been major fish kills, and water quality has been poor.

These events have caused a sharp drop in native fish numbers, and Murray Cod populations “are still fragile”, DCCEEW says.

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QUEENSLAND

The Queensland government has released a discussion paper as part of a major review of the state’s Environmental Offsets Framework.

The review is partly in response to the passage of the federal EPBC Act reforms.

The discussion paper highlights problems with the existing offsets framework including developer over-reliance on meeting offset conditions simply by making payments into the Queensland government’s Offset Account.

The government is also finding it difficult to find suitable offset projects that could be funded through the Offset Account.

Reform proposals include making it clearer that offsets are only to be considered once all reasonable steps have been taken to avoid environmental impacts.

Proposed reforms would also support the development of a market to buy environmental offsets for major state projects in advance of when they are actually needed.

The state government also intends overhauling its outdated financial settlement offset calculator, which often underestimates the cost of securing offsets.

The paper suggests the flawed calculator is the reason that more than 90% of offset conditions are currently being met simply through payments into the Offset Account, as these payments are determined using the calculator.

The paper also points out that the federal government is currently developing its own financial offset calculator.

Aligning Queensland’s calculator with the federal version could smooth the way for federal accreditation of Queensland’s environmental offsets framework, it notes.

The first of two online information sessions is scheduled for this Friday.

The Queensland government has gazetted an environmental regulation that makes changes to Environmentally Relevant Activity standards for petroleum exploration and pipeline activities.

The changes align the conditions “with current legislation, policies, and best practices as well as address outdated references, correct inconsistencies, and improve clarity for operators and regulators”, the government says.

The Queensland government says four new grid-scale battery projects that have recently reached key milestones will add another 940MW of storage to the grid.

The battery projects are capable of powering nearly one million homes at times of peak demand, according to the state government.

NSW

The NSW EPA will today give evidence to a NSW parliamentary committee inquiry into emissions from the fossil fuel sector.

The hearing is likely to hear evidence from the EPA on its recent changes to licensing requirements regarding greenhouse gas emissions.

Representatives of the Net Zero Commission and NSW Resources will also give evidence.

Transcript is now available of public forums on waste to energy convened by a NSW parliamentary inquiry on May 14 and 15 in Goulburn.

The federal government has released EPBC environmental documentation provided by Iberdrola for its proposed Mullion Creek wind farm near Orange.

The wind farm would be built in the Mullions Range softwood pine plantation, which is managed by the NSW Forestry Corporation.

The project would comprise up to 33 turbines. It would have the capacity to generate enough electricity for 106,000 homes and it would create up to 250 construction jobs.

The NSW government has released a Biodiversity Impact Report focused on conservation activities on private land, facilitated by the Biodiversity Conservation Trust.

The report covers the years 2018 to 2025, and it shows that over those years the Biodiversity Conservation Trust and participating landholders have:

• Prevented the loss of approximately 35,000 hectares of native vegetation.

• Protected habitat for at least 304 threatened species.

• Safeguarded 41 threatened ecological communities.

• Contributed nearly 40% of the total area added to NSW’s protected area network since 2018.

Landholders participating in the Biodiversity Conservation Trust program manage their properties for conservation in exchange for annual payments.

The NSW government, through energy tender administrator ASL, has openedthe state’s largest ever tender for new clean energy generation, which has an indicative target of 2.5 GW of new capacity.

Successful projects in the tender round will be offered a Long-Term Electricity Service Agreement (LTESA) that allows them to get support if market revenues fall below a pre-agreed floor. When revenues are strong and rise above a defined ceiling, projects must repay a proportion of any previous support.

Generation LTESA tenders were paused for two years while projects in NSW participated in the federal Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS), which operates in a similar way.

With the NSW allocation under the CIS expected to be shortly met, the NSW tender marks a return to support under the state’s energy roadmap.

Concurrently, ASL will also conduct a new tender for 12GWh of Long-Duration Storage.

Ausgrid has completed stage one of the Hunter-Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) network infrastructure upgrade.

Stage one will allow 350MW of new renewable energy capacity to connect in the region.

Completion of the entire project, which is scheduled for 2028, will allow about 1.8GW of new generation and storage to connect to the grid, and will allow up to 1GW of capacity to be exported at any one time.

The project is unique because it mostly involves an upgrade of existing distribution poles and wires, instead of the construction of new transmission lines.

The NSW Auditor-General has released a report on the $880 million Resilient Homes and Resilient Lands program administered by the NSW Reconstruction Authority.

The program aimed to buy back homes in the Northern Rivers region that were affected by the 2022 floods, and which became uninhabitable.

The audit says the program started with insufficient planning and risk mitigation measures.

“This had a significant impact on their ongoing implementation and led to delays,” the report says.

The NSW Investment Delivery Authority is seeking Expressions of Interest for major projects that safeguard the state against future global fuel supply shocks.

The Authority is focused on commercial-scale projects valued at $100 million or more that would directly improve fuel security, including renewable fuel projects and heavy electric vehicle charging hubs.

The Authority will help remove delivery barriers for selected projects, will support them to progress more quickly.

VICTORIA

Infrastructure Victoria has released a new report that warns that the state’s infrastructure “faces a rapidly escalating risk landscape driven by climate change”.

The report is the largest analysis ever done of the climate change risks to Victorian Government-owned and regulated infrastructure.

It looks at $318 billion worth of assets across Victoria and the risks they face from seven different extreme weather events.

The report finds that more than $57 billion of Victorian Government-owned or regulated infrastructure is at risk of damage or destruction from extreme weather. In the next 40 years, this value at risk rises to more than $71 billion.

Bushfire, flood and extreme heat pose the greatest risk, the report concludes.

It says that $20.2 billion of roads are at risk from climate hazards, mainly bushfire and floods, as well as rail infrastructure worth $10.3 billion and energy infrastructure worth $7.1 billion.

Steelmaker InfraBuild has confirmed that its Laverton facility in western Melbourne is now contracting sufficient renewable electricity to meet up to 50% of its electricity needs.

The Laverton Power Purchase Agreement with a Victorian wind farm augments InfraBuild’s existing 25% renewable energy agreement at its Sydney Steel Mill and Newcastle Rod Mill in NSW.

The agreements form part of InfraBuild’s efforts to be fully reliant on renewable electricity across all its manufacturing sites by 2030.

InfraBuild is also planning to secure supplies of biomethane as a replacement for fossil gas in parts of the Laverton mill that can’t readily be electrified.

Victoria’s auditor-general has released a report on sustainability reporting by the state’s water corporations, which are all required to achieve net zero emissions by 2030.

The audit focuses on reporting by Melbourne Water, South East Water, Yarra Valley Water, and Greater Western Water.

It concludes their sustainability reporting for last financial year was incomplete and inconsistent. However, some reporting requirements are complex and overlap, the audit report acknowledges.

The audit report also includes a list of better practices for sustainability reporting, which the Auditor-General’s office has developed to help Victorian departments and agencies to strengthen their sustainability reporting.

A Victorian parliamentary committee inquiry into waste to energy will hold a public hearing tomorrow.

Those giving evidence include Gayle Sloan, chief executive of the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association, and a representative of paper company Opal, which is implementing a waste to energy plant at its Maryvale mill that will slash its use of fossil gas.

Representatives of EPA Victoria, and Infrastructure Victoria will also appear before the inquiry.

The federal government is providing $120.3 million under its Social Housing Energy Performance Initiative (SHEPI) to support energy upgrades at an additional 8,000 homes.

The funding will be targeted at public and community housing, and will support upgrades such as the installation of air conditioners, hot water heat pumps, ceiling insulation, and induction cooktops.

The new commitment comes on top of previous SHEPI funding that has supported upgrades for almost 3,500 homes.

TASMANIA

The Tasmanian Parliament’s Joint Select Committee on Energy Mattershas tabled its interim report on energy prices and related matters.

“While Tasmania has among the lowest regulated standing offer electricity tariffs in Australia, this does not reflect the lived experience of many Tasmanians when paying their electricity bills,” the report says.

“Higher per-household consumption, driven by the state’s cold climate, ageing and poorly insulated housing stock, and high reliance on electric heating, means Tasmanian households face among the highest electricity bills in the country,” it says.

The interim report recommends a review of Tasmania’s minimum energy efficiency standards for rental properties to ensure they meet contemporary standards.

And it recommends working with the federal government to deliver programs that improve the energy efficiency of public and private rental properties.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

As previously flagged by Premier Peter Malinauskas, the South Australian government has introduced a Bill that would lift the moratorium on fracking in the South-East of the state.

The moratorium dates from 2018.

Energy and Mining Minister Tom Koutsantonis told Parliament that extensive research shows fracking doesn’t pose a significant risk to groundwater if it is properly managed and regulated.

The South Australian Opposition is opposed to lifting the moratorium.

The South Australian government has released draft updated flood hazard mapping and planning rules.

NORTHERN TERRITORY

The NT EPA has invited comment on draft terms of reference for the environmental impact statement for SunCable’s Muckaty solar project.

The project would build on SunCable’s already approved AAPowerLink project, which would generate up to 6GW of clean energy, for supply to industrial customers in Darwin and Singapore.

SunCable with make a Final Investment Decision on the AAPowerLink project towards the end of 2027, with customers in Darwin expected to be offtaking electricity from 2032.

SunCable aims to have the Muckaty solar farm approved before it makes a Final Investment Decision on AAPowerLink.

Muckaty would be built in stages, and would have up to 5GW of generating capacity as well as 21.7GWh of battery storage.

SunCable also regards co-located data centres as prospective customers for its electricity.

The NT EPA is inviting comment on draft terms of reference for environmental impact statements for three inter-related carbon capture and storage projects proposed by INPEX.

One project would establish a CO2 compression and export system at INPEX’s Ichthys LNG plant on Bladin Point in Darwin.

Another would install a buried onshore pipeline system between the Ichthys LNG plant and the inlet to a longer pipeline to the sequestration site.

The third project would install a 90km pipeline running from Darwin Harbour to the boundary of the Northern Territory’s Coastal Waters.

The pipeline would take CO2 from a range of industrial customers in Darwin for sequestration in Commonwealth waters, with start-up provisionally scheduled for 2031.

INPEX says the potential Bonaparte storage site could sequester more than 300 million tonnes of CO2, stored at the rate of 10 million tonnes annually.

INPEX is also interested in storing CO2 imported from across the Asia Pacific at the Bonaparte site.

THE COP31 GLOBAL CLIMATE TALKS

COP31 President Murat Kurum and President of the Negotiations Chris Bowen have released a joint letter to COP parties.

In it, Chris Bowen names three Pacific climate envoys:

• Ms Kristina Eonemto Stege from the Republic of Marshall Islands, Regional Envoy for Oceania, focused on keeping 1.5 degrees within reach.

• Mr Ruel Yamuna, from Papua New Guinea, Envoy for Access to Climate Finance.

• Hon Inia B Seruiratu MP, from Fiji, Envoy for the Ocean.

Minister Bowen also names some key Australian appointments.

DCCEEW Deputy Secretary Kushla Munro will serve as executive director for Australia’s President of Negotiations, “and will lead Australia’s overall COP31 endeavour”.

Dr Sally Box will serve as Deputy President of Negotiations and Chief Negotiator for COP31.

David Higgins will serve as Deputy Executive Director for Australia’s President of Negotiations, and will lead on Pre-COP as well as Australia’s contributions to the Action Agenda in collaboration with Türkiye.

The latest letter follows the release of the inaugural letter in April, which was issued only under the name of COP President Murat Kurum.

Meanwhile, Türkiye abstained from last week’s crucial UN General Assembly vote on the International Court of Justice advisory opinion on climate change.

NATIONAL

FY27 Budget papers are available here, with Budget paper 2 containing information on new programs.

Several environmental organisations criticised the Budget for inadequately funding nature restoration and conservation efforts, despite significant new funding to implement EPBC Act reforms.

The Biodiversity Council estimated that proportion of the federal budget allocated to on-ground nature programs has remained at 0.06% of the Budget, equivalent to just $1 for nature out of every $1,667 spent.

The Council noted that scientists have estimated that 1% of the Budget needs to be spent on nature to prevent further extinctions of native plants and animals, and to adequately restore and conserve land and sea areas.

WWF Australia said the budget’s $500 million package to implement Australia’s EPBC Act reforms - including $250 million to establish the National Environmental Protection Agency - was an important step forward for nature.

“This commitment shows the government is serious about making these reforms work,” it said.

However, while the funding for EPBC-related reforms is welcome, “nature remains underfunded overall”, WWF said.

The Invasive Species Council expressed concern at cuts to key pest and weed programs.

However, it welcomed a two-year allocation totalling almost $100 million to extend the Saving Native Species Fund, describing it as a “lifeline” for nature, which still left uncertainty about medium-term funding.

“Projects like deer eradication in World Heritage areas, gamba grass control in the Northern Territory, yellow crazy ant eradication in Queensland, and feral cat eradication on Kangaroo Island, all depend on sustained, long-term investment if we are to continue hard-earned wins that are happening on the ground,” it said.

Other organisations commenting on the Budget include:

The Investor Group on Climate Change, which said that, overall, the Budget “puts the brakes on new clean energy supply and will therefore harm Australian households and businesses”.

The IGCC criticised cuts to clean energy programs, and also criticised proposed Capital Gains Tax changes that it said are likely to result in higher capital gains tax on global investment in Australia’s renewable energy sector.

However, the IGCC noted that there were some minor measures to boost investment in early-stage climate tech, and it welcomed the continuation of the home battery program.

The capital gains tax changes applying to international renewable energy companies with projects in Australia were also criticised by the Clean Energy Investor Group.

The Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand said the Budget “signals an important recalibration of climate related financial disclosure, with the government committing to consult on ways to improve efficiency and reduce burden, while retaining core reporting requirements”.

The Smart Energy Council said it viewed the Budget as “cautiously positive for renewables, with important wins tempered by some difficult cuts”.

It welcomed funding to implement environmental approval reforms, and $40 million of continued funding for EV charging infrastructure.

The Climate Council said fossil fuel multinationals had received “a massive free kick” in the Budget, with the diesel fuel tax credits scheme and foregone gas export tax revenue amounting to “more than $19 billion” annually.

The Australian Conservation Council said the Budget “contains at least seven times more spending on initiatives that damage nature and the climate than it allocates to climate and nature protection”.

Meanwhile, law firms that have released commentary on climate and environment aspects of the Budget include Mallesons and Hall & Wilcox.

In his latest annual report on deploying renewable energy projects in regional areas, Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Tony Mahar says “the challenges are more complex and deeper than I had even imagined”.

Australia’s energy transition is happening at an increasing pace and will affect different regions in various ways, Mahar said.

“Inevitably, it involves real disruptions and some uncertainty for communities, as it brings a lot of new things into the landscape - and change of this magnitude is never going to be easy.”

In 2025 the Commissioner opened 205 new cases (including 170 complaints), which were related to about 78 projects. About 90% of the cases were for projects in NSW and Victoria.

Wind farms accounted for around 50% of cases.

The proportion of complaints about transmission decreased, as there are increasingly alternative pathways to deal with these, the Commissioner noted.

“My agenda and intentions remain clear,” Mahar said. “To do what I can within my remit to improve the experience of the energy transition for regional communities.”

The Productivity Commission has released more submissions received in response to its draft paper on heavy vehicle reforms.

Tesla calls for a blanket exemption from curfews for electric trucks, and urges a faster rollout of heavy charging sites.

Modelling by the Energy Futures Foundation estimates that specified reforms would deliver an additional 467,000 electric trucks by 2050.

The Electric Vehicle Council says that heavy vehicle exhaust is responsible for approximately $6.2 billion in societal health costs and up to 2,000 avoidable deaths each year.

The Productivity Commission has published its submission to the statutory review of the Fringe Benefits Tax exemption for electric vehicles.

The submission calls for its phase-out, saying that the FBT exemption costs taxpayers between $1,000 and $20,000 per tonne of avoided greenhouse gas, “greatly exceeding the cost of other ways of reducing emissions”.

The federal and Queensland governments have released a new Reef 2050 Catchment Water Quality Strategy, which replaces the previous Water Quality Improvement Plan.

The new strategy includes new targets to be achieved by 2032.

“Labor’s net zero obsession is driving up inflation and destroying our economy,” Opposition leader Angus Taylor said in his Budget reply speech. “That’s why net zero must go.”

Taylor also pledged to “abolish Labor’s hidden carbon taxes – like the so-called Safeguard Mechanism”.

“Prioritising net zero and emissions reduction above all else has seen cheap, always-on power dismissed for expensive, sometimes-on, industrial-scale renewables – mainly sourced from offshore,” Taylor said.

“Power prices have soared – causing households to struggle, businesses to close, and industries to move offshore,” he said. “Far from a future made in Australia, our future is being made abroad.”

Taylor added that a Coalition government would work with coal-fired power plant owners “to keep them running as long and as hard as possible to get electricity prices down”.

The Coalition would also “re-write” Labor’s EPBC reforms to speed up approvals, he said.

The Greens have instigated a Senate committee inquiry into the growth of data centres in Australia, which will examine the adequacy of existing regulatory frameworks.

“Every day I am hearing from people who are concerned about the impacts of AI on our environment, water and energy supply,” said Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

“We cannot allow Australia to become a dumping ground for energy-hungry data centres without proper scrutiny or public accountability or consultation, and that’s what this inquiry will provide.”

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has announced a shortlist of seven projects for potential funding through round 2 of the Hydrogen Headstart Program.

Four of the projects would produce hydrogen that would be used to produce methanol (with one of these producing methanol and sustainable aviation fuel).

One project would produce hydrogen for conversion to green ammonia, one would use green hydrogen to manufacture urea, and another would produce hydrogen for use in the alumina industry.

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QUEENSLAND

Queensland’s Labor Opposition has unsuccessfully tried to disallow a waste regulation, arguing the LNP government had used the statutory instrument to “hide” a provision that will allow the shooting of flying foxes to continue.

When in government, the Labor party introduced measures that would have banned from 1 July a scheme allowing fruit growers to obtain permits to kill flying foxes.

This would have meant all growers would have to rely on exclusion netting.

However, a waste and recycling regulation introduced by the LNP last year repealed the deadline for phasing out the permit regime.

Labor’s Leanne Linard said the repeal of the ban date was done “in a sneaky and underhanded way without any opportunity for consultation with environment and animal welfare groups”.

“Flying foxes play a critical role in pollination and seed dispersal, particularly for rainforest trees and eucalyptus,” added Linard, who is Queensland’s shadow environment minister.

Environment Minister Andrew Powell rejected the criticisms, and said he expected the number of permits to kill flying foxes to continue on a downward trend. He noted quotas are in place that restrict the number of flying foxes that can be killed.

The disallowance motion was rejected on party lines.

NSW

As the NSW Parliament prepares to debate a government renewable energy Bill to speed the approval of priority clean energy projects, the Opposition last week introduced its own Bill, focused on wind and solar decommissioning.

The Opposition’s Energy and Other Legislation Amendment (Renewable Energy Infrastructure) Bill 2026 (no. 2) would enable the introduction of a financial assurance regime to ensure end-of-life rehabilitation costs can be covered.

The Bill would also require development consents to specify that materials in wind and solar farms are reused or recycled at end-of-life.

Meanwhile, substantive debate is yet to commence on the government’s Prioritising Renewable Energy Bill.

The government’s Bill would create a framework for identifying Priority Energy Projects (PEPs), which could either be individual projects, or classes of projects.

In a sign that the state government is not taking Opposition support for granted, Planning Minister Paul Scully’s second reading speech for the government Bill called out “confusion and division” between the NSW Liberals and Nationals.

“The challenge before the Opposition is does it support our previously shared goal of building out the State’s renewable energy potential,” Scully said.

The NSW government’s latest tender for firming infrastructure has resulted in contracts being awarded to one battery energy storage system and one virtual power plant.

The contracts, known as Long-Term Energy Service Agreements (LTESA), have been awarded to AGL (for a 500MW/2,000MWh battery) and Enel X for 32MW/128MWh of demand response.

The tender round focused on projects capable of supporting the Sydney-Newcastle-Wollongong region, where electricity demand is increasing due to electrification and new industrial demand.

Together with the 1GW of firming already under contract, the latest tender increases the total to more than 1.5 GW, strengthening the ability of NSW’s grid to respond during periods of peak demand and system stress.

Meanwhile, in the coming weeks, tender administrator ASL will open its first generation LTESA tender in two years. The tender will target 2.5GW of new generation capacity.

In parallel, a separate tender will commence that is seeking 12GWh of long-duration storage.

The NSW government is making an initial $60 million available to communities in the New England Renewable Energy Zone, through its Community and Employment Benefit Program.

The funding is being brought forward to ensure community projects can start to be delivered well before construction starts on REZ works.

VICTORIA

The Victorian government has determined that the environmental impacts of Westwind’s proposed 1.65GW Warracknabeal Energy Park wind farm are acceptable, marking a major advance towards final approval.

Once complete, the $2.5 billion 219-turbine wind farm would have the capacity to meet the electricity needs of up to 1.2 million homes, equivalent to about 12.5% of the state’s electricity requirements.

The project, which still requires EPBC approval, is expected to create almost 950 jobs during construction.

The wind farm will be built on agricultural land within the Western Renewable Energy Zone, and farming will continue as the farm is being built and once it starts operating.

Community benefit schemes associated with the wind farm will provide a minimum of $2,000 per turbine per year. Those payments are in addition to payments made to landholders hosting turbines and associated infrastructure.

A Victorian parliamentary committee inquiry into renewable energy for apartments has released almost 100 submissions.

Transcript is also now available from the inquiry’s first two public hearings.

The Supreme Court has upheld EPA Victoria’s argument that Cleanaway underpaid its landfill levy contributions for the Ravenhall landfill in Melbourne by nearly $7 million in 2017-2018.

Cleanaway used crushed rock from a neighbouring quarry as daily cover for the landfill cells, and the EPA successfully argued that levy payments were owed on the crushed rock.

The EPA and Cleanaway will now discuss costs and possible interest on the unpaid levy.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Statutory development - gas production. The South Australian government will introduce legislation this week to remove the current ban on fracking for gas in the state’s South-East.

The Energy Resources (Regulated Activities) Amendment Bill will repeal a moratorium that was introduced by the former Liberal government.

“The Australian Energy Market Operator has forecast increasing risks to gas supply in southern Australia from 2029, with additional supply required in many scenarios from 2030,” Premier Peter Malinauskas said.

“By acting now, the government will allow any future proposals in the South East to begin the planning, technical studies and baseline environmental work needed to support regulatory assessment.”

“South Australia has a long and successful history of safely regulating hydraulic fracture stimulation,” the Premier said. “More than 1,300 wells have been fracture stimulated since 1969 in the Cooper Basin without impact on aquifers.”

NORTHERN TERRITORY

Statutory developments - pipelines and mining. The Northern Territory Assembly has passed two bills - one amending the regulation of petroleum pipelines, and the other amending mining legislation.

Measures in the Pipelines and Petroleum Legislation Amendment (Industry Development) Bill will facilitate carbon capture and storage projects, by allowing CO2 to be transported in all licensed pipelines.

The Mineral Titles Legislation Amendment Bill includes provisions that the Territory government will “improve integration between environmental licensing and mineral titles administration”.

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NATIONAL

The Australian government has released a revised draft EPBC Act National Environmental Standard on Matters of National Environmental Significance.

The revised draft standard says unacceptable impacts on matters of national environmental significance - such as threatened species and threatened ecological communities - must be avoided.

Compensation that results in a net gain must be provided for any residual significant impacts on these matters.

Comments are due by May 29.

The federal government will allocate more than $45 million over four years to finalise bilateral EPBC assessment and approval agreements with states and territories, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced.

State and territory governments that sign new bilateral agreements will be empowered to conduct assessments and issue approvals on behalf of the federal government.

However, they will need to comply with the provisions of the federal EPBC Act, and with the new EPBC National Environmental Standards that are currently under development.

“Instead of a two-stage, two-track process, with that all the cost of delays and doubling up that occurs, this will be a one-step process, with one, clearer, faster, yes or no,” Albanese said.

“This will ensure proponents can benefit sooner from quicker, more efficient environmental approvals.”

🤔 Our take. The big news here isn’t so much the money - it’s the fact that approval bilateral agreements with states and territories now seem inevitable.

Various governments have tried for more than a decade to advance them, but have got no further than bilateral agreements on environmental assessment.

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The federal government has announced it will trial the development of EPBC Act Protection Statements for five species.

Protection Statements are a new tool under the EPBC Act that will set binding rules on how threatened plants, animals and ecological communities are to be protected.

If a Protection Statement applies to a particular species or ecological community, then it would replace guidance contained in recovery plans, and would become the main document for conserving that species or community.

Position Statements do not require advice from the federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee. The five trial species for the development of protection statements are:

• the Regent honeyeater

• the Southern bent-wing bat

• the Pygmy blue-tongue lizard

• the Grand spider orchid

• the Southern right whale.

Climate Change Authority Chair Matt Kean has pointed out that a rapid transition to electric vehicles would do much more to boost energy security than building a new refinery, in a recent speech to CEDA.

Building a new conventional refinery “would likely take the better part of a decade to deliver and, on indicative figures, add petrol output equivalent to only a modest share – around one-sixth – of national demand”, Kean said.

“By contrast, if half of all new cars sold over the next 10 years were electric – which is one of the plausible pathways we examined – that would steadily and permanently cut demand for imported oil,” he said.

“Over the decade, the reduction in liquid fuel demand would be material,” Kean said. “By the end of the period, the cut could be of the order of one-third of annual petrol demand.”

New data from the Australian Energy Market Operator shows that across the National Electricity Market renewables reached a record for a first quarter, supplying 47% of the grid.

The average wholesale electricity price across the NEM fell 12% year-on-year in the quarter.

AEMO Executive General Manager Policy & Corporate Affairs, Violette Mouchaileh, said the increase in large‑scale and household battery capacity “is changing how electricity is produced, consumed and priced across the day”.

“Grid-scale batteries are increasingly absorbing excess renewable energy during the day and shifting it into the market during evening peaks, helping moderate prices during high-demand periods.”

In a speech on the State of the Great Barrier Reef, federal Environment Minister Murray Watt said “one action will dramatically improve the quality of water flowing to the Reef – a key step towards maintaining the Reef’s Outstanding Universal Value.

The Minister was referring to more stringent federal scrutiny of land clearing proposals in Reef catchment areas that was introduced as part of EPBC Act reforms.

The new requirements have been criticised by the Queensland government, which has instigated a Queensland Productivity Commission inquiry into the EPBC reforms.

Minister Watt noted in his speech that the Great Barrier Reef has an estimated value of $95 billion and directly supports 77,000 jobs, which makes it Australia’s fifth biggest employer.

The figures are “a powerful reminder of what’s on the line – economically - when it comes to protecting the Great Barrier Reef”, he said.

🤔 Our take. The different attitudes that the federal and Queensland governments have on these EPBC reforms remind us of a Reef-related commitment given to UNESCO earlier this year, which seemed an unusual one for the Queensland government to make.

In January, Australia submitted a new report to the World Heritage Committee on the state of conservation for the Great Barrier Reef. The report said the Queensland Government “will develop sector emissions reduction plans to ensure all industries are engaged in realising a net zero future”.

If it were true, that would be a good thing. However, given Queensland’s attitude to emissions reduction strategies, it seems an unlikely pledge to make to an international organisation.

The federal government has awarded $50 million over five years to four projects that will protect wetlands across Great Barrier Reef catchments, under its Reefwise Wetlands Program.

The projects will revegetate mangroves, and restore natural flow patterns. The projects will also restore low-lying, degraded agricultural and pastoral lands, to manage erosion and prevent run-off.

They will also target feral pigs and invasive weeds.

Australia’s E3 energy efficiency and ratings program has released a final Regulatory Impact Statement on plans to introduce minimum energy performance standards for heat pumps.

Water heating accounts for about a quarter of household energy use in Australia. Heat pumps hot water systems are much more efficient than other types of water heaters. However, they can vary in quality.

The RIS says the introduction of performance standards and mandatory labelling will have net benefits of $689 million out to 2040.

The standards would also result in cumulative reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of 1.5 million tonnes.

The standards will be introduced through a federal Determination that is currently being drafted.

More than 350,000 households, small businesses and community organisations have now installed batteries with the support of the federal Cheaper Home Batteries program.

About half of them have installed new or upgraded solar systems at the same time.

New postcode-level data shows about 77% of the uptake has occurred in regional and outer-suburban areas.

The Household Energy Upgrades Fund has helped finance energy upgrades in more than 4,100 homes since it started in May 2024, according to a new analysis.

The Fund provides discounted finance products to help householders upgrade their homes with items such as energy-efficient appliances, PV systems, batteries, EV chargers and double-glazed windows.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation has committed $400 million to participating lenders since the scheme began. These lenders - which include several major banks - have so far committed a further $400 million.

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QUEENSLAND

Queensland’s Western Downs Regional Council has finalised a $30 million Community Benefit Agreement with the proponent of the proposed Goombi Renewable Energy Hub.

The Hub would comprise a wind farm with up to 107 turbines, and an 800MW/3,200MWh battery storage system near Chinchilla.

Goombi Energy Holdings Pty Ltd, which is a joint venture between LP Renewable Projects and TagEnergy, has pledged to make annual contributions totalling $840,000 to communities surrounding the project.

This amounts to $30 million over the project’s 35-year life.

Half the annual contribution will be spent by GEH on housing for its workers, with GEH also spending money on training, infrastructure improvements, and support for vulnerable and disadvantaged groups.

It will also spend $84,000 a year on a community Fund grants program.

The council will receive $42,000 a year, and will allocate it to waste and landfill improvements and road upgrades.

The Hub would produce enough energy to power around 400,000 Queensland homes, and will avoid 1.6 million tonnes of greenhouse gas being emitted into the atmosphere every year.

Under Queensland legislation that passed last year, all new large-scale wind, solar and battery projects must finalise a Community Benefit Agreement with relevant local governments before seeking state government approval.

Western Downs Regional Council mayor, Andrew Smith, said a number of other proposed renewable energy developments across the region are negotiating Community Benefit Agreements.

The federal and Queensland governments have awarded a total of $820,000 to seven organisations to protect and boost turtle populations, in the latest round of funding under the Nest to Ocean Turtle Protection Program.

Queensland is home to six of the world’s seven marine turtle species, all of which are considered threatened due to climate change, habitat loss, and predation of eggs by introduced pests like feral pigs.

The Queensland coast is home to some of the most important marine turtle nesting and feeding sites in the world.

The Queensland government has declared the state’s third Special Wildlife Reserve, in an area southwest of Mount Isa.

The 228,657-hectare Pilungah Special Wildlife Reserve is owned by Bush Heritage Australia and has now become Queensland’s third Special Wildlife Reserve.

The declaration means the area is permanently protected from other land uses, such as mining.

The area supports migratory waterbirds, and has one of the world’s most diverse reptile communities.

In July 2021 the Wangkamahdla people’s rights over the area were formally recognised in a native title determination and the reserve then became known as Pilungah.

Bush Heritage Australia has prepared a management plan to guide conservation activities across the reserve in close consultation with the Wangkamahdla community.

NSW

A NSW parliamentary inquiry into waste to energy facilities has scheduled a public forum in Goulburn, to be held on Thursday.

For the first time in more than a decade, the NSW government is inviting applications for fossil gas exploration licences in two areas in NSW’s Far West. Applications close on 31 July.

The state government will also update regulations to reduce the gas exploration licence application fee from $50,000 to $1,000.

A NSW Legislative Assembly committee has released a report on the impact of water buybacks in the Murray-Darling Basin.

CR Plus Pty Ltd is seeking approval to increase processing capacity at its Minto resource recovery facility from 450,000 tonnes a year, to 600,000 tonnes annually.

CR Plus is the largest recycler of concrete and brick in Sydney, and operates similar facilities in other Sydney suburbs.

VICTORIA

The Australian Energy Regulator has published its final revenue decisions for 2026 to 2031 for five Victorian electricity distribution network service providers (DNSPs) – AusNet, Jemena, CitiPower, Powercor and United Energy .

The AER said Victoria’s energy market is undergoing a complex transition, with changes in household and commercial energy use, new loads such as data centres, and increased focus on resilience due to bushfires and severe weather.

The final decisions allow AusNet to recover $4,745.7 million out to 2031, Jemena to recover $2,000 million, CitiPower to recover $2,039 million, Powercor to recover $5,335.4 million and United Energy to recover $2,319.2 million.

However, the Regulator estimates that Victorian householders will see an annual fall in the distribution component of their electricity bills of between $6 and $38 over the same period.

This is because forecast higher demand for electricity will result in the increased costs being shared among more customers.

Victoria has the world’s third largest deposits of antimony, which is a critical mineral.

And it is now inviting grants for the early-stage development of downstream antimony processing facilities in the state. Grants totalling $1 million are available.

The main use of antimony is to harden lead in storage batteries, and it is increasingly being used in the semiconductor industry.

Solar Victoria has created a new Energy Efficiency Target Reform Division.

The division will be headed by Renae Gasmier, who was previously Head of Innovation and Strategy at AGL.

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TASMANIA

The federal government is providing an additional $14.6 million under its Social Housing Energy Performance Initiative (SHEPI) to provide about 1,200 social housing properties in Tasmania with energy performance upgrades.

Work can include double glazing, electric heat pump hot water systems, thermal insulation, and LED lighting.

SHEPI is a $1.1 billion national program, in which the federal government aims to work with states and territories to deliver energy performance upgrades to 100,000 public and community homes.

The federal and Tasmanian governments have previously committed $8.3 million each under the program for energy upgrades to 1,700 properties.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Water testing results show the vast majority of South Australia’s coastline is continuing to record zero or low levels of the Karenia algae species.

The majority of testing sites have consistently recorded zero or low levels of Karenia since the start of February.

In the latest round of testing, only one onshore site across the state recorded elevated levels of Karenia.

In line with lower levels of Karenia across South Australian waters, incidents of marine life washing up on beaches has declined significantly since the peak of the algal bloom.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

The first federal Capacity Investment Scheme auction rounds for Western Australia’s Western Energy Market has resulted in seven generation projects with a total capacity of 1.9GW receiving offers of CIS support.

Six of the projects are wind farms - including Neoen’s 420MW Yathroo wind farm, and its 168MW Narrogin wind farm, Zephyr Energy’s 470MW Parron Maam Marang project, and Synergy’s 240MW Tathra wind farm.

The Capacity Investment Scheme auction has also resulted in support for three battery projects in the Western Energy Market with a total capacity of 482MW.

The successful projects represent a total of $5 billion in new energy infrastructure investment. They will create 7,000 construction jobs and 500 ongoing maintenance jobs in WA’s Wheatbelt, Mid-West, Peel and South West.

Project developers have offered to pay more than $1.1 billion in host community benefits, as well as $894.8 million in benefits for host First Nations communities. They will also purchase Australian steel worth $1.1 billion.

The successful projects will generate enough electricity to power more than one million WA households and will provide enough dispatchable storage capacity to support more than 400,000 households for four hours during peak demand.

Federal Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said the successful projects would deliver “the biggest electricity boost in Western Australia’s history”.

The Capacity Investment Scheme isn’t a grant scheme. Instead, successful projects receive payments up to a certain level if their revenue falls below an agreed floor, and make payments to the federal government if their revenue goes above an agreed ceiling.

The Western Australian government will establish a $1.4 billion Clean Energy Fund in this year’s state Budget to support renewable energy projects.

The fund - to be detailed as part of the 2026-27 State Budget - will support Clean Energy projects like Clean Energy Link (CEL) - East, which will expand the South West Interconnected System to bring more renewable energy to households and industry in Perth and WA’s South West.

CEL - North is currently under construction and will improve access to renewables between Malaga and Three Springs, with high-capacity transmission lines, terminals, substations, and transformers installed on the network to unlock the flow of clean energy from the Mid West.

CEL - East is the next stage of expansion and will connect new wind and solar projects east of Collie, delivering cleaner, more affordable and more reliable power for the future.

When complete, CEL - East will deliver enough energy to power about 1 million homes.

Together, CEL - North and CEL - East will deliver 3GW of renewable energy and will create about 800 local jobs during the construction phase.

CEL - North is on track for completion in late 2027, while CEL - East will be online by the end of 2029.

The Western Australian EPA has recommended that a proposed sand and limestone quarry near Mandurah not be approved, because it is bordered on three sides by a national park.

The Yalgorup National Park is the second largest national Park on the Swan Coastal Plain.

The EPA said noise and dust from quarry operations and truck haulage would result in unacceptable environmental impacts.

The same proponent had previously proposed a quarry near a nearby Ramsar wetland, but ultimately withdrew it.

A WA Reuse Impacts Study estimates charity and reuse organisations are keeping thousands of tonnes of waste out of landfill, and allowing households to save about $245 million a year by buying second-hand.

The savings are equivalent to about $200 for every WA household.

The sector is also supporting more than 1,300 jobs, and raised $42 million that was reinvested into social and community programs.

The study, by Charitable Reuse Australia in partnership with the WA Waste Authority, estimated the organisations are allowing households to avoid the consumption of 6,100 tonnes of virgin materials each year.

They are also preventing an estimated 110,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.

IDEAS, ADVOCACY, GUIDANCE, AND INNOVATION

Vanuatu has released the final text of a resolution regarding the International Court of Justice advisory opinion on climate change, which it will put to the United Nations General Assembly for a vote on May 20.

The resolution welcomes the Court’s opinion, and calls on the UN Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly a report containing ways to advance compliance with all obligations identified by the Court.

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The federal and Western Australian governments have agreed to start work early next year on what would be Australia’s first EPBC Act bilateral agreement for environmental approvals (although bilateral agreements for environmental assessments have been around for a long time).

And in a new MoU they explicitly state the agreement will reference the WA Pilbara Environmental Offests Fund, which has been around for years and has so far failed to deliver more than a few modest biodiversity projects.

Will the process of developing the agreement lead to a better PEOF? Let’s hope so, but we’ll have to wait and see.

You can find core details of the Memorandum between the two governments on developing EPBC assessment and approval bilaterals are in today’s issue of the Earthed newsletter, which covers climate, nature and sustainability news from around Australia.

And we will chat about it a bit more in tomorrow’s Earthed podcast (out on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube).

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Here are a few other highlights you can find in today’s Earthed newsletter:

• Nature by numbers. The Australian government has released the second national ecosystem accounts, which shows how our environment is tracking, and how it supports our economy and wellbeing. The accounts put a dollar value on environmental services including carbon storage, and fresh water resources.

• Environmental assessment documentation for the Port Hedland Green Steel project is now available.

• The Queensland government has gazetted the State Development and Public Works Organisation (Taroom Trough Development Plan Works) Amendment Regulation 2026).

  The Regulation empowers the Queensland Coordinator-General to prepare a development plan for oil and gas resources in the Taroom Trough.

• Ten council-led projects will share more than $2.3 million in NSW EPA for projects that tackle problematic waste. They include a project by Liverpool City Council and UNSW that will pioneer a pyrolytic process that can turn shredded mattresses into carbon for green ceramic pavers. Other funded projects include a trial of new technology that will allow waste trucks to scan bins for the presence of batteries before collection.

• Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has announced new parliamentary secretaries to assist ministers in key portfolios, including climate change.

• Plus, test your knowledge of wombats in this week’s quiz.

Check out the Earthed newsletter and podcast for more!

Here’s a few items from this week’s just-out Earthed newsletter - starting with a surprising number of seaweed developments.

(That’s not so surprising I guess, given seaweed-derived products can cut methane emissions and substitute for plastic, and given seaweed forests are the environmental equivalent of a combined childcare centre and laundry).

Plus, I’ve also dropped in an item from today’s Earthed newsletter about a new climate transition plan released by the Victorian government - the plan is excellent. Again, that’s not so surprising - Victoria’s water utilities have done some inspiring work to cut emissions in recent years.

The other item I’ve selected is on NSW’s new electric vehicle strategy - it includes a commitment to introduce a right to install EV chargers in strata buildings.

That caught my eye for selfish reasons. I live in an apartment block that successfully implemented an opt-in bulk buy of solar for apartments - and EV charging infrastructure would be a great next step.

If you subscribe on Substack, you’ll get weekly Earthed newsletter highlights.

But if you want the full picture—a quick, comprehensive round-up of climate, nature and sustainability news across Australia—head to our website and sign up (free or paid).

Get the full Earthed newsletter

If you’d prefer some chat with your news, the Earthed podcast drops Tuesdays (the newsletter is out every Monday.)

Listen to the Earthed pod

Seaweed news from the federal, NSW and WA governments

Five projects - including three seaweed and algae projects - have received federal Industry Growth Program grants to help them commercialise innovative new products, processes and services:

• Bioborne will receive $2,267,343 to scale its closed-loop microalgae production process. After trials, bioborne aims to produce a new range of bio-fertilisers that will help increase crop yields.

• C Sea Solutions will use its $2,107,300 to help scale production of Uluu - a seaweed-based alternative to plastic packaging. The grant will help the company to complete trials, gain certification and commercialise its product. They aim to achieve first sales in sustainable packaging for cosmetics.

• Immersion Group will use its $750,000 to build a photobioreactor for cultivating a native seaweed that can be used as a feed additive to reduce livestock methane emissions.

The NSW government has released the environmental impact statement for Auskelp’s proposed 200-hectare seaweed farm offshore from Eden.

The kelp farm would produce more than 1,500 tonnes of wet seaweed annually, valued at more than $9 million, which could be used in food, for animal feed supplements, and in bioplastics.

Meanwhile, the state government has also awarded an $896,000 grant to Auskelp for the purchase of a vessel that will plant and harvest the kelp.

The NSW government has teamed up with the University of New South Wales to reinstate a seaweed known as crayweed along stretches of Sydney’s coastline.

The state government has licensed more than 20 Crown land marine sites for restoration works.

Crayweed once formed vast underwater forests along Sydney’s coast before it disappeared in the 1980s, probably because of pollution.

New data shows total seagrass in Bindjareb Djilba (Western Australia’s Peel‑Harvey estuary) increased by 16% over the last four years, in line with state government commitments to improve the estuary’s health.

The 2024 - 2025 Seagrass Survey shows seagrass now covers more than 9,200 hectares, accounting for around 71% of the total estuary area.

It’s not all about seaweed. Other news in today’s newsletter includes:

The Victorian government has released a new transition plan to ensure the state’s water utilities reach net-zero emissions by 2035.

The state’s 18 water corporations have already achieved more than a 45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions since 2019-20, and are now powered entirely by renewable electricity.

Measures contained in the plan include introducing a standard cost for greenhouse gas emissions that will be used by the state’s water businesses in their decision-making.

Melbourne Water has also undertaken to develop emissions reduction plans for its western and eastern sewage treatment plants, which produce nearly 70% of the water sector’s Scope 1 emissions.

The NSW government has released an updated Electric Vehicle Strategy.

Measures in the strategy include greater efforts to deploy charging infrastructure, including at the kerbside, and the proposed introduction of a right to install EV chargers in strata buildings.

So far, the state government has funded the installation of more than 3,300 EV chargers in over 1,200 sites. More than 117,000 EVs are now registered in NSW.

Since the release of the initial 2021 NSW Electric Vehicle Strategy, EVs have increased from less than 1% of new light vehicle sales, to 8.9% of new sales in 2025.

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Here’s the top story from today’s Earthed newsletter. Check out the full Earthed newsletter - and sign up for free so you don’t miss an issue - over at https://www.earthed.au/.

Amended financial arrangements between Queensland government-owned energy company Stanwell and coal mining company Coronado Global Resources could deliver the company cash flow benefits of about $250 million this financial year, the company says.

The altered arrangements also appear to have had significant flow-on benefits for Coronado. That’s because they helped to drastically cut the assurance that the company has to provide in order for officials to be satisfied that it can meet its rehabilitation obligations.

Coronado Global Resources owns the Curragh coal complex in the Bowen Basin. It exports metallurgical coal to steelmakers located overseas, and thermal coal to Stanwell.

Under the terms of Coronado’s contractual obligations with Stanwell as they applied last year, Coronado paid a rebate to Stanwell of more than $100 million a year, and sold thermal coal to Stanwell at a discounted price. The arrangement reflected the fact that Coronado mines coal in tenements located in an area contractually set aside for Stanwell’s benefit.

However, changes to the Stanwell-Coronado agreement mean that, with effect from 1 January this year through to sometime in 2027, Coronado no longer has to pay a rebate to Stanwell. In addition, Stanwell has undertaken to pre-pay for at least some coal if Coronado’s monthly liquidity is below $250 million.

The altered arrangements have also helped to drastically cut the assurance that the company has to provide in order for officials to be satisfied that it can meet rehabilitation requirements for its mine.

Last October, Coronado was informed by a state government official that an annual review, which took into account the company’s financial soundness, had determined that it belonged in the high risk category. The company said a high rating would require it to provide a surety, in the form of bank guarantees, insurance bond or cash collateral, matching the Curragh’s Estimated Rehabilitation Cost of $242.7 million.

Coronado said at the time that “we may be unable to provide sufficient cash collateral or secure sufficient guarantees or bonds on commercially acceptable terms, or at all”, and signalled it would appeal the rating.

That appeal proved successful. The final determination – made after the altered arrangements that provide liquidity support to Coronado - was that the company was only a moderate-high risk. As a result, the company’s financial obligation is far more modest. It must only provide a contribution set at 6.5% of the estimated rehabilitation cost for the mine.

The category of moderate-high risk is a new one that was introduced by the Queensland LNP government late last year.

While the new arrangements have been good news for Coronado, they had a negative financial impact on Stanwell.

The Queensland Audit Office last year noted that an unnamed “private entity” with a long-term coal supply agreement owed Stanwell $604.2 million as at June 30 of that year.

“In response, Stanwell and the supplier amended these agreements to provide the supplier with short-term liquidity support. Stanwell reassessed the risk that the supplier might not repay the full amount owing,” the Audit Office said. “This resulted in Stanwell recognising expected losses of $124.0 million, reducing its profitability for 2024–25.”

More details are contained in Stanwell’s annual report, which shows that Stanwell provided Coronado Curragh Pty Ltd with a cash payment of $116.1 million in June 2025, representing an upfront payment for additional coal to be supplied over five years from 2027.

Also in this week’s issue:
* Some intriguing changes to the coal delivery contractual arrangements between Qld government-owned Stanwell and mining company Coronado.

* A farmer's passionate advocacy for renewables, in evidence to a NSW parliamentary inquiry.

* The WA EPA has proposed a unique approval condition for a gold mine, to protect the critically endangered night parrot (a bird that is so rare that for almost 100 years it was thought to be extinct).

* CSIRO and the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust are pushing DNA technology to new limits to test for the presence of native animals in remote areas.

Head to https://www.earthed.au for more!

You can listen to the pod below. Or sign up for the free newsletter - and find out more about us - at https://www.earthed.au.

In this issue:
A new NSW waste Bill; Queensland’s mining minister Dale Last tells parliament of his 'I'll sign, you drill' mantra; Federal, state and territory environment ministers meet; NSW proposes new dust pollution controls; Victoria introduces new insulation subsidies; Big clean energy contracts signed out in WA; And more!

Plus find out how many $$ Canberrans have saved through cheap sustainability loans!

Harj - who represented the Solomon Islands in the landmark ICJ climate court case - joins Franziska and me to to chat about:

• the importance of smaller groups of sectors or governments that are willing to be more ambitious,

• how the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty initiative is ‘shifting the conversation’,

• key climate litigation trends to watch,

• why the ICJ opinion didn’t get pulled into the COP30 negotiating bubble,

• and why climate reparations is an emerging important concept.

They’re a very talented crew, each with hands-on experience, and each with a deep knowledge of ‘big picture’ factors that influence business decision-making. And they covered some fascinating ground - sometimes agreeing and sometimes disagreeing. What are big emitters doing to decarbonise, and what needs to happen for them to do more? And what should emerge from the Safeguard review? Tune in to find out!

The podcast also covers Australia’s involvement in this year’s COP31 global climate talks.

This ambitious treaty recently won the world’s most prestigious environmental prize - the Earthshot prize for reviving our oceans.

The prize was accepted on behalf of the treaty by the director of the High Seas Alliance, Rebecca Hubbard. In this episode, Franziska and I do a virtual trip to Rio to recreate that well-deserved prize-winning moment at the 2025 Earthshot prizes.

And then we chat with Rebecca, who explains how the treaty was developed and what it will do. It’s an inspiring episode - enjoy! And if you want to know more about ocean protection and marine environmental policy, check out our recent episode featuring Ralph Regenvanu talking about the Melanesian Ocean Reserve, as well as our episode on low-emissions commercial shipping, featuring Andrew Dickson.

It was a privilege to chat with one of the world’s strongest voices for climate action, Vanuatu’s Climate and Environment Minister Ralph Regenvanu, about plans for a massive, multi-nation Melanesian Ocean Reserve.

It’s definitely an episode of the Track Changes pod that you won’t want to miss!

Will it be a COP that explicitly aims for ‘Tropical Forests Forever’ and tacitly leaves the world in a ‘fossil fuels forever’ mindset? Or will it be a COP where there is action across the board?