We, The Climate Wonks Of Asia, In Order To Form A More Perfect CBAM...
We’re electrifying more things in Victoria and bits of NSW, and CBAM enthusiasts are thinking bigger as Clean Energy Finance presents: an Asian Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism!
Frankie has a new (day) job! She’s heading to the Investor Group on Climate Change after more than nine years at the Property Council and is going to apply those well-honed extortion skills to the entire net zero transition!
Your intrepid hosts are excited about electrifying all the things this week with big electrification policies landing in both Victoria and City of Sydney. The much anticipated next tranche of Victoria’s Gas Substitution Roadmap agenda is finally here with the Allan Government launching a bold package of reforms. Gas hot water heaters? Out. Minimum energy efficiency rental standards? In! All-electric new builds? Absolutely. The City of Sydney is also joining the electrification party and banning gas in new residential buildings from the end of 2025, with more work on commercial buildings to come. Chris Minns calls “overreach” but we reckon this is the beginning of the end for gas use in buildings!
Our main course
Have Australian CBAM enthusiasts been dreaming too small? Is an Asian CBAM the secret sauce for clean trade in our region? Have Frankie and Luke now read enough CBAM papers to level up and get a CBAM merit badge? Tennant licks his lips as your intrepid hosts devour a new report from Climate Energy Finance, ‘A Price On Carbon: Building Towards an Asian CBAM’. While this wasn’t necessarily the CBAM paper we were looking for, authors Matt Pollard and Tim Buckley make carbon pricing padawans of us all - and maybe all those DFAT folks who need to use the force to sell this idea - and give us the basic commands for a future Asian CBAM. We’re signing up for the advanced class please! (That means we’d like another paper on what next, kthxbye).
Listener Voicemail
Summerupperer Rob Law asks why “energy sufficiency” isn’t a thing in Australia? We venture thoughts on branding, culture, and an abundance obsession? Also, Frankie wants sufficiency-themed papers and T-shirts!
One more things
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a big hearty thank you to Australia’s outgoing climate change ambassador, Kristin Tilley. The LMSU crew salute her deft diplomacy and work to build closer relationships with our Pacific neighbours. She’s off to sort out the WTO in Geneva, bon voyage and best of luck!
Tennant’s One More Thing is: an appeal for sanity as US politics watchers boggle at discussion of a proposed tax on domestic clean energy. Tennant’s therapy suggestion? Shout “stop being crazy!” loudly for 30 seconds. It worked for him in recent role playing adventures of Arkham Sanitarium at a Call of Cthulhu RPG convention. Seems as likely as anything else to work for snapping the US Congress out of it.
Luke’s One More Thing is: his recent forays over on the First Fuel podcast feed, talking energy governance reform with Rob Murray-Leach and COP31 with Chris Bowen.
And that’s it for this week, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
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