Let Me Sum Up: Recent Episodes
Tennant Reed, Luke Menzel, Frankie Muskovic
Your regular deep dive into recent reports on climate and energy with Frankie Muskovic, Luke Menzel and Tennant Reed. Because there is too much.
Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for a dissection of the latest cracks in the ECMC Federation
This week our Bonus episode includes Frankie, Luke and Tennant dissecting the spicy, spicy goings on in the latest Energy and Climate Ministerial Council meeting. Run, don’t walk, over to www.letmesumup.net and subscribe to our Patreon to hear which state dissented from the latest communique, and wild speculation on why!
—
Another day, another few gigawatts of data centre proposals to ponder! Your intrepid hosts continue their burgeoning obsession - alongside the nation’s polity, big business and interest groups aplenty - on the continued hype around the growth of AI, data centres and Australia’s role in all of the above. No question it is THE hot button issue of the day, the most recent proof point being the PM has given a great big speech on it! Australian Standards will be made! Copyright and content protection is high on the list! ECMC is on the case, with an eye on energy requirements for data centres! The prospective numbers around investment are super high - but are we heading for an AI bubble deflation? And how much productivity is actually going to be delivered by the bots? One thing is for sure, this won’t be the last time LMSU convenes this corner.
Our main course
This week our main course is a slab of statistical delight - that’s right! - we’ve looking at the latest Statistical Review of World Energy, now in it’s 75th year! Started in 1952 by bp and stewarded for many years thereafter, these days, the baton has been passed to the UK Energy Institute with assists from Ember, KPMG, Kearney and Wattage Consulting. If you’ve never ventured into this document’s tabular depths you are in for a real treat! This globally watched, massive comprehensive account details exactly where the world’s energy is coming from, with a bunch of fascinating stories to unpack. When you look past the limitations of data presented as Primary Energy, it is clear that big structural shifts are underway - but the story from region to region looks very different!
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: AEMO QED Q2 2026! Battery rampage continues, Data Centre connection queue swells 67%! Always quality content, 4 times a year - hop on it people!
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a plug for the latest report from The Superpower Institute, ‘How Australia can break its foreign fuel dependence, complete with some handy video explainers.
Luke’s One More Thing is: a back pat for Australia! Sourced from the just-released IEA Mid-Year Electricity Update 2026, showing an intriguing data point with Australia bucking the trend for wholesale electricity price spikes caused by the fuel crisis. Our saviour? Batteries!
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for a chat on Diesel Fuel Tax Credits!
This week our Bonus episode includes Alison, Frankie, Luke and Tennant breaking down what is going on with the various pushes to remove, reform - and preserve! - diesel fuel tax credits. Run, don’t walk, over to www.letmesumup.net and subscribe to our Patreon to check it out.
—
Your intrepid welcome back super friend of the pod and sometime co-host Alison Reeve as we boot Luke out for a chat on two things LMSU’s unimpeachable governance has determined he can have no say in!
First up, it’s been two laps around the sun since our deep dive into the 2024 Integrated System Plan and so into the 2026 ISP we must dive! What’s different from the last one? Well, in news that some of us energy wotchers will find comforting, this is a bit more boring than the last ISP because the central scenario is broadly pretty consistent with the last one! Data centre load hype replaces hydrogen load hype, batteries continue to eat into the role for gas but a bit more gas capacity is needed - how to finance this remains a key question! We also ponder the extent to which constraints on the ISP to reflect current government policies well into the future and reflect vastly different pictures across states is at all realistic.
Our main course
This Menzel-free main course is serving Big G GOVERNANCE as we tuck into Power Dynamics: Energy Governance in Australia, authored by long time climate and energy policy knower Rob Murray-Leach for the Energy Efficiency Council and RACE for 2030 CRC. It follows previous work from the EEC, ACOSS, Australian Industry Group and Property Council of Australia and contains a cornucopia of common sense ideas. Central to the reform philosophy proposed is a better balance of centralised and decentralised elements, and coordinating institutions and resources to focus on the tasks they’re best suited to. Simples, right?
One more things
Alison’s One More Thing is: the NSW Government’s current parliamentary inquiry into an EV road user charge and the potential for more constitutional challenges! Governments really need to decide who’s doing what here (lookin at you Commonwealth).
Tennant’s One More Thing is: Blithering ballpark numbers for space-based sunshades (solar powersat and sailcraft versions!) to mask global warming, buying time for emissions reductions without spraying sulphur or diamond dust in the stratosphere.TL;DR is there are easier ways to solve climate change change guys.
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a HUMUNGOUS shoutout to all the folks who have been working on and advocating for a national home energy rating system for the last two decades - it is finally here! Go check it out at https://www.homeenergyrating.gov.au/. Now let’s giddyup on mandatory disclosure please!
Luke’s One More Thing is: Pauline Hanson’s National Press Club address. Compulsory viewing for climate and energy wonks concerned with understanding the seismic shifts in Australian politics and how this impacts efforts to combat climate change.
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for Germany industrial decarb tour and London Climate Action Week debrief!
This week our Bonus episode includes a debrief from Luke and Tennant on their recent tour of Germany looking for inspo for Australia’s industrial decarbonisation journey plus extra side BoCo on BoCo reportage of the goings on at London Climate Action Week, including the launch of #ElectrifyNow global campaign! Run, don’t walk, over to www.letmesumup.net and subscribe to our Patreon to check it out.
--
In an unprecedented move of late your intrepid hosts temporarily abandon Energy Crisis Corner (we’ll be back fo sho) for a look at China’s just latest and just-published Five Year Plan! On first review of the climate and energy parts, it looks to be weak on carbon and large scale renewables targets but respected Respected China Energy Watchers also argue it’s incredibly strong on the growth of storage and flexibility, and electrification? Already miles ahead of the global ambition in the new #ElectrifyNow campaign for 35% of final energy demand by 2035 - China reckons they’ll get there by 2030 at a steady cruise!
Our main course
The time has come! Muskovic’s Methane Musings takes to the main stage - as it was always destined to! - and we dive into the Climate Change Authority’s latest consultation paper, ‘Fossil methane: A near-term abatement opportunity’. The good folk at the CCA are being pragmatic and laying out the facts when it comes to sources of methane in Australia, but they’re zeroing in on near term abatement opportunities in the coal and gas sectors, because there’s a lot we can do! Tune in for the opening debate on GWP20 vs GWP100, why measurement and reporting could be better and what kinds of technology and policies could be looked at federally (lookin at you Safeguard) and at the state level. Consultation closes on 7 August so hop on it folks!
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: Orica reaching final investment decision on the Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub, with a lil’ help from the Hydrogen Headstart program!
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a shoutout to Summerupperer Rowan Moorey from Springmount Advisory for alerting us to some cool stats from the IEA showing the significance of energy efficiency compared to electrification, renewables and nuclear on energy and cost savings globally in response to the global fuel crisis. Efficiency for the win!
Luke’s One More Thing is: a shout out for the global electrification campaign ElectrifyNow.world launched at London Climate Action Week during a record-breaking heatwave. TL;DR is London isn’t set up for extreme heat and some innovative solutions (cushions stuffed in windows, anyone?) were being deployed across the city to keep folks comfortable. cough Adaptation cough
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for Bonus Bonn bons!
This week our Bonus episode has Frankie interrogating Luke and Tennant for some reportage of all the goings on at the Bonn intersessional talks. Overnight cross country German roadtrips! Electrification! Action agenda! Trade talk snafus! Run, don’t walk, over to www.letmesumup.net and subscribe to our Patreon for this especially sweet Boo!
—
In what will most-definitely-absolutely-hunge-percent be the last episode of Global Energy Crisis Corner because: We Have A Deal! Or do we? At the time of recording a ceremonial signing was in the works for Zurich on Friday so YOU Summerupperers know better than us whether Trump is leaning in on the art in this deal. Will the Strait of Hormuz be open by the time this episode drops? No tolls - just fees!
Our main course
Your intrepid hosts take a closer look at the Australian Government’s Domestic Gas Reservation Scheme: draft Design Framework, currently out for consultation. We track back over how exactly we got here, key design elements of the scheme and what remains to fleshed out and we reckon all this means for gas users, gas producers and that little thing called the energy transition.
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: a recommendation almost certainly made in the delirium of not enough sleep: anyone who hasn’t yet seen John Woo’s Hard Boiled should know T rates this a hard recommend.*
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a reconstitution of Muskovic’s Methane Musings (complete with jingle) to telegraph our very own Climate Change Authority has released a consultation paper on abatement opportunities for fossil methane! Hop on it folks.
Luke’s One More Thing is: some free BoCo from Michael Liebreich’s recent visit to Australia, including a keynote at the Energy Efficiency Council’s recent National Conference. Here’s the keynote, fireside Q&A and appearance at the National Press Club.
And in light or recent announcements out of Bonn, LMSU also gives a massive shout out to Australia’s Team Electrification, led by the inimitable Anna Freeman, who’s been herding cats on the global electrification pledge launched by Turkiye in Bonn!
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
*sort of.
Summerupperers, we’ve made it! 100 episodes in and your intrepid hosts are still banging on about the latest developments and papers in climate and energy, because, THERE REALLY IS TOO MUCH.
This week the LMSU crew marked the centenary occasion by recording this episode together - in real life! - on Bidjigal and Gadigal country, where we fielded questions and provocations from you, our amazing community of listeners.
A huge shout out and thanks to Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen, Clare McLaughlin, Erwin Jackson, Julian Soo, Georgina Woods, Anna Hancock, Beth Richards, Alison Reeve, Carlos Flores, Anna Skarbek, Barry Sterland, Tom Quinn and the ghost of Queen Elizabeth II for calling in with your questions and well wishes!
Over 100 episodes and four and a bit years, one of the best parts of doing LMSU has been hearing from all of you. Emails, shout outs on socials or encounters in the wild - hearing you've enjoyed the pod or find it useful doing the important work you do to advance climate action is why we're still in your ears, every fortnight, summing up the latest developments in climate and energy.
And a very special thanks to our Super Sumerupperers who support us on Patreon. Without you, we absolutely would not be here! Your continued support means we can work with the fabulous Mark Spencer, who edits the pod, thereby saving our collective sanity and relative work life balances.
If you listen to us on the regular, consider joining our Patreon and getting access to special subscriber only bonus episodes.This week, our bonus episode involves unlocking the archive and airing Episode 0 - our very first pilot episode! Walk, don’t run, over to
letmesumup.net
for all your LMSU needs.
Send us a voicemail to mark Let Me Sum Up’s upcoming 100th Episode!
Your friendly neighbourhood climate and energy podcast of record is about to clock up its 100th episode! Global VP for Marketing and Extortion kindly requests Summeruppers to send us a voicemail with your questions for LMSU’s intrepid hosts or favourite anecdotes from listening to the pod. All contributions welcome!
—
In Episode XII of Global Energy Crisis Corner the current fuel crisis might have slipped off the radar of everyday Australians because, well, it’s all been Very Much Under Control And Nothing To See Here Except Higher Than Pre-Crisis Domestic Fuel Reserves. That doesn’t stop your tired, but resilient-in-our-nerdery intrepid hosts from another serving of what-is-actually-going-on-out-there chat! The latest IEA Oil Market Report makes it clear things are still VERY BAD but the impacts have been softened by countries drawing down on their domestic reserves - particularly China. But how much longer can this last? And how is this being experienced outside rich countries like Australia that can afford to pay extra to bolster imports? This article in the Economist does a good job outlining the impacts across Asia. Buckle up for Episode XIII folks.
Our main course
Your intrepid hosts dive out of the fire and into the frying pan to dissect ‘Power Flexible AI Factories: A UK-First Demonsration of Grid-Responsive AI Infrastructure’, a paper from Chris Williams et al and supported by Emerald AI, Electric Power Research Institute, the UK’s National Grid and Nebius. So what does BIG AI think the solution is to managing the growth of power-hungry data centres across the globe?
Unsurprisingly this paper is optimistic on the potential for data centres to operate in practice as a form of demand response, to smooth peak demand around significant events (tea kettle breaks for UEFA matches, anyone?) and reduce power consumption by up to 40%. The trial documented in the paper provides some real cause for optimism and throws out some suggestions for reform, but bigger trials and key questions - like who pays for the flex? And how about that water consumption? - still need grappling with.
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: a techno-optimist double delight! CATL deal for 60 GWh sodium-ion batteries for grid storage shows sodium is here and lithium constraints aren’t going to be a problem AND Fervo IPO - geothermal startup raises US$1.89b and market values it at $10b+ - they will have the money to get their first 500MW plant up and running this year (Cape Station, Utah).
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a sneaky peak into LMSU’s post Budget analysis to alert folks to a tantalising reference to the Government’s work on a ‘market measure’ to drive demand for new Australian LCLF production (page 12 of BP1 to be precise). Watch this space!
Luke’s One More Thing is: some electrification optimism percolating around the country - from the $40m funding in the Budget to help electrify Australia Post’s operations to Incat in Tasmania taking their ferries all electric!
LMSU also heartily commends to Summerupperers the book ‘Power, Prosperity and Planet: Climate and Energy Policy For All’ from friend of the pod, Thom Woodroofe!
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
Send us a voicemail to mark Let Me Sum Up’s upcoming 100th Episode!
Your friendly neighbourhood climate and energy podcast of record is about to clock up its 100th episode! And our Global VP for Marketing and Extortion kindly requests Summeruppers to send us a voicemail with your questions for LMSU’s intrepid hosts or favourite anecdotes from listening to the pod. All contributions welcome!
Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for Pre-Budget Palooza or Grab our Sector Plan Odyssey Six Pack on its own!
This week our Bonus episode includes wild and semi-informed speculation on what to expect for climate and energy in this year’s Federal Budget. Run, don’t walk, over to www.letmesumup.net and subscribe to our Patreon to check it out.
And if all you really wanted from LMSU’s BoCo bonanza of late was our six pack of sector plan coverage, you can grab that on its own too.
—
In a trend that shows no sign of abating, your intrepid hosts reconvene Global Energy Crisis Corner because, it’s been another two weeks and There Is Too Much. Since our last episode global oil prices are back up but local fuel prices are down. Que pasa? Government credit on import deals is subsidising fuel? Lag to global price spikes? Panic hoarding largely passed? A little bit of everything we reckon. So where does this leave us? The crisis doesn’t look like it'll be done anytime soon, time to explore efficiencies and longer term pivots to better storage and electrification we reckon!
Our main course
Your intrepid hosts think it’s not a bad time for countries to be discussing the transition away from fossil fuels, so cue a global summit we prepared earlier! Last week the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels was held in Santa Marta, Colombia. We unpack where the conference came from (a few COPs in the making!), who was there (lots of constituencies, about half of COP parties pushing for stronger action to phase out fossils), who was not there (the other half of COP countries less keen on faster action, a bunch of business) and what happened! We dive into the Santa Marta Action Repertoire (SMART) Summary, the academic dialogue of the conference, edited and overseen by Friedrich J. Bohn, Jesse Burton, Andrea Cardoso, Frank Jotzo, Sissi Knispel de Acosta, Kjell Kühne, Pao-Yu Oei, Annette Zou. From overcoming economic dependence, to transforming supply and demand and advancing international cooperation and climate diplomacy, ideas abound and some spicy disagreement between your hosts emerges!
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: the IMO Net-Zero Framework is back under discussion! The outcome was continued technical refinement work, with adoption decision not due to be re-opened til October 2026.
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a hasty convening of Muskovic’s Methane Musings to plug the just-published IEA Global Methane Tracker 2026. What does it say? Frankie’s not sure but Tennant suggests there are claims Australia’s methane fugitives are way higher than reported.
Luke’s One More Thing is: some reportage on the recent high level dialogue hosted by the IEA in Paris with Turkiye and Australia, at which some encouraging comments were made from Turkiye’s COP31 President Kurum on support for electrification and energy sovereignty… NOW?
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
Grab your limited edition ‘Energy Sovereignty Now!’ t-shirts!
There is now an insufficiency of energy sufficiency AND sovereignty tees in the world, but don’t worry, the LMSU merch store has got you covered! Promises made, promises kept folks - grab your limited edition t-shirt right here.
Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon so you too can SafeGuarder!
This week our Bonus episode unpacks the second year of data from the reformed Safeguard Mechanism with a side serve of national accounts figures. Run, don’t walk, over to www.letmesumup.net and subscribe to our Patreon to check it out.
—
Your intrepid hosts reconvene Global Energy Crisis Corner because, There Is Too Much. Since our last episode we’ve seen the PM’s performative tour de force to short up energy contracts in the region, the launch of a mass media campaign gently suggesting we Keep Calm and Take Public Transport Where You Can, one of two Australian fuel refineries ON FIRE, the Great Gas Tax Debate, the blink-and-you-miss-it-open-and-close-of-the-Strait-of-Hormuz, aaand some alarming reporting revealing the inner workings of the Trump administration’s decision to start a war with Iran. Or in other words, just a day ending in Y for 2026!
Our main course
This week, we read a paper from two political science researchers, Jared J Finnegan and Jonas Meckling, ‘Fighting the Future: Short Term Investors and Business Opposition to Climate Policy in which they’ scour US corporate data for answers to why some businesses oppose regulatory climate policies more frequently or intensely than others. Their focus? Not differences in company emissions intensity, already well studied, but differences in time horizon. Their conclusion? Businesses with more pressure to deliver short term results are more likely to more actively oppose climate policy. Some of this is a bit Captain Obvious, but there are a couple of gems in here, even if there’s a worrying reliance on US political donations data! Extra props must be given for the X-Files Movie reference in the title!
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: the IEA Oil Market Report for April 2026 - free! Exciting! Full of uncertainty!
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a reconvening of Muskovic’s Methane Musings featuring the currently open DCCEEW consultation on the 2026 National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Scheme Updates, including updates to accounting for fugitive methane emissions from coal and gas mining!
Luke’s One More Thing is: two shout outs! One for sometime co-host and friend of the pod, Alison Reeve, for the paper recommendation this week, plus one for another friend of the pod, Jan Rosenow, who continues to provide on-point analysis throughout the current, and previous, crises!
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
Grab your limited edition ‘Energy Sovereignty Now!’ t-shirts!
There is now an insufficiency of energy sufficiency AND sovereignty tees in the world, but don’t worry, the LMSU merch store has got you covered! Promises made, promises kept folks - grab your limited edition t-shirt right here.
Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for the latest episode of My Little GSOO™
This week Tennant and Frankie give Luke the slip as we unpack AEMO’s 2026 Gas Statement of Opportunities. Electrification at pace? You betcha! Gas import terminals? Some still like ‘em! Global fuel crisis? So far unaccounted for, but we can’t say the same for one c-word. Run, don’t walk, over to www.letmesumup.net and subscribe to our Patreon to check it out.
—
Wouldn’t you know, the world is still cray cray, but extant so let’s take that win! The PM is one national address into this crisis and throw in the National Cabinet’s latest four point plan (the National Fuel Security Plan) and some COVID-style PTSD is kicking in! But not to worry folks, we are at Level Two and the message is very much Don’t Panic, Take The Train Or Work From Home If You Can. We reckon this is a fascinating exercise in laying down markers for messaging that will be ramped up, and we’ll continue to speculate over some of the woolier bits in Levels 3 and 4. WATCH THIS SPACE.
Our main course
There’s no shortage of ideas abounding at the moment on how exactly not to waste the current fuel crisis, but your intrepid hosts landed upon the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis’ latest paper, ‘The perfect storm to boost energy security: How Australia can reduce its oil exposure in the wake of the Iran conflict.’ Brought to us by Kevin Morrison and Amandine Denis-Ryan, the crew at IEEFA do a splendid job of laying out the history and context around Australia’s current predicament of much more marginal reserves than our IEA counterparts and while they’re at it, serve up a menu of sensible solutions on the supply and demand side, to ensure we don’t find ourselves in this particular pickle again. Bilateral crisis supply agreements? We’re seeing some signs of that! Electrification and energy efficiency? That sounds like a thing we’re about!
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: true nerd appreciation for the just launched Artemis II! A cool, technically stupendous and peaceful adventure into space! Fun fact: Apollo-era NASA took funding peaking at about 4.6% of US GDP to land men on the moon. Artemis-era NASA is rebooting this while getting about 0.1% of US GDP
Frankie’s One More Thing is: A plug for the NSW Net Zero Commission's advice to the NSW Government intended to help inform the work underway for the new NSW Net Zero Plan to 2025, due to be released in mid-2026. They’re big on electrification and methane, and Frankie is, unsurprisingly, a fan.
Luke’s One More Thing is: the just released movie of The Magic Faraway Tree. Luke had some trepidation noting Enid Blyton’s outsized impact on his childhood reading, but the ultimate verdict was 3 out of 5 stars - from Menzel and his younguns!
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for the political commentary BoCo pod you didn’t know you needed in your life!
Politics junkies? Guilty as charged! Nothing was going to keep your intrepid hosts from grabbing the popcorn and settling in to watch the SA election this past weekend. Run, don’t walk, over to www.letmesumup.net and subscribe to our Patreon to hear what we make of the Malinauskas empire and an orange wave.
--
The world is still cray cray and your intrepid hosts are here to bear witness to what Fatih Birol has called a fuel crisis worse in its impact than the two 70s oil crises combined. CRIKEY was that a wake-up call for us Aussies who hadn’t yet seen electricity or gas prices spike, but started using public transport and buying more EVs as fuel prices hit $3/L. Where to next you ask? Who knows what batshit crazy moves the orange man will make, but the more uncertainty over where its all going creates delay in supply chains readjusting to the new reality. And could we finally see the imposition of a gas export tax that actually collects revenue? WILD TIMES.
Our main course
While Dr Birol - longtime IEA maestro - was on Australian shores, he was spruiking their hot-off-the-press report ‘Sheltering from Oil Shocks: measures to reduce impacts on households and businesses’ which promotes a menu of ten options to cut oil consumption through demand side measures. What’s on the IEA wishlist? Public transport! Carpooling! Slowing down on highways! More efficient truck driving! Don’t fly for work! Change to electric cooking! And some doozies that maybe won’t go down well in some quarters (yep, the ol’ WORK FROM HOME idea). This is a striking bit of comms from the IEA. Absolutely right to focus on the here and now, but the longer term actions like ramping up EVs, electrification and reducing reliance on fossil fuels altogether appeared in a modest epilogue. It had your intrepid hosts wondering if the US threat to the IEA to drop that crazy net zero stuff is having an impact. Time will most surely tell!
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: a Fraunhofer Institute study of data from 1 million European cars, indicating PHEVs use 3x the fuel they are estimated to using regulatory tests. The reasons: drivers don’t plug them in that much; and the cars tend to run their fossil engines during electric mode more often than regulators assumed.
Frankie’s One More Thing is: the formal establishment of Muskovic’s Methane Musings with the exciting development that NSW EPA have just announced they WILL IN FACT regulate methane emissions from coal mining.
Luke’s One More Thing is: a shameless plug for the Energy Efficiency Council’s annual conference, coming up in Sydney on May 27-28 at which some guy who apparently does another energy podcast, (Michael Liebreich?) will in fact appear in all three dimensions and corporeal form in Sydney at this conference. If you’ve heard of him, I guess you better go check it out.
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
Another regional conflict precipitating another energy security crisis has your intrepid hosts feeling some deja vu as we find ourselves in an increasingly familiar setting as we contemplate the opportunities and challenges presented in the current US-Israel war on Iran. Beyond the horrific human toll of the Trump administration’s latest incoherent, all-tactics-no-strategy foray into the Middle East, there are some complex consequences to world energy markets playing out and it’s too soon to tell where this all goes from here. Global oil prices? Spiking! And likely to lead to airfare cost increases. Gas prices? Also spiking! But not in Australia, say whaaat? Like we said, ‘It’s Complicated’.
Our main course
We stick solidly ON THEME this week with ‘Fossil energy minimum viable scale: unseen infrastructural threats to safety and decarbonization may arise as fossil energy systems are phased out’ from Joshua Lappen and Emily Grubert, published recently in Science. This compact paper packs a punch and has a couple of big ideas to engage with. One is that energy transition types have been want to assume legacy fossil fuel infrastructure will carry on at the required capacity over the required timeframes to see replacement renewables in place. NOT SO say our authors, who contend that minimum viable scales for operation are not well understood and are certainly not being factored into planning for the transition, when it comes to physical, financial and managerial constraints. Their advice? DO better modelling, planning and managing of these issues at an asset level. Elements of this paper felt super familiar (hello gas distribution network death spiral) whole others worrying novel (oh hi there fuel-refinery-that-won’t-operate-under-65%-capacity). Liked the provocations here we did!
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: Cloud Carrier’s proposal to power a new data centre in NSW entirely by natural gas. Lots of debates sure to come!
Frankie’s One More Thing is: continued excitement at all things methane abatement focused, from the CCA’s stated priority to look at this in 2026 to the NSW EPA’s consultation on measures it may implement to reduce or destroy fugitive methane emissions from coal mining.
Luke’s One More Thing is: listener voicemail from none other than Baethan Mullen, CEO of the Superpower Institute, who left us a note with his reaction to our reaction to their recent paper on pricing carbon pollution. Thanks TSI for keeping us busy reading your excellent work!
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
It’s 2026 and we’re back, baby! Clearly not much has been happening in the world since we left you appreciating the one liners of dreamy cult classic The Princess Bride, so this we’ll keep brief. HA!
Your intrepid hosts cast our sights beyond the binfire of domestic politics for a moment to the latest international institution to draw the ire of the Trump administration - this week featuring the International Energy Agency! The IEA’s recent biennial ministerial gathering in Paris last week saw the US demand climate be dropped as a priority – and specifically that net zero scenarios be dropped from their projections – Or Else! In this case, Or Else means a US withdrawal along with their dollars. Will the IEA succumb to these demands? Your intrepid hosts think unlikely, but Australia and other countries will need to stand firm and/or pick up more of the tab.
Our main course
The folks at The Superpower Institute must have known the LMSU crew leapt into 2026 ravenous for climate content and oh boy, did they deliver. Their recent paper, ‘The Case For Pricing Pollution,’ authored by 2025 Wonky Award winner Reuben Finighan and Ingrid Burford packs not one BUT TWO big ideas for your intrepid hosts to digest. A ‘Polluter Pays Levy’ would see a price on carbon applied to fossil fuel production/supply with price eventually pegged to the EU ETS, combined with a ‘Fair Share Levy’, a two-way cashflow tax of 40% on oil and gas (but mostly gas) producers, replacing the current and not effective Petroleum Resource Rent Tax. In other words: don your meat dress, crank One Direction, and tax rents and carbon while planking. YOLO (again)!
Why has TSI ‘gone there’? we can hear you gentle listeners ask. We are not on track to meet our net zero commitments, structural budget deficits demanding spending restraint in the face of growing costs attached to worthy social supports, and weak productivity suggests the need for a more efficient way to price carbon and raise revenue ($35.6 Bn a year out to 2050 is big dollars). This report is a bold provocation, aiming to stimulate discussion ahead of the 2026/27 Safeguard Review to suggest it’s time to revisit the policy that until recently dared not speak its name. Your intrepid hosts welcome the provocation and thinks there may be multiple ways to skin the carbon price cat. Also, this should definitely have been two papers. Kthnxbye.
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: another obscure but entertaining pop culture find: V: The Original Miniseries. Available we’re not sure where. You’re welcome!
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a strange and unexpected role reversal as she plugs the long-awaited, much lusted after in one T Reed’s heart, the final report from the Government’s carbon leakage review! Slipped out the same day as #LibSpill2026 no less. TL;DR is: do the CBAM! (and not much change from draft report).
Luke’s One More Thing is: the currently-showing-in-theatres-Baz-Luhrmann-spectacular “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert”. Stitched together from footage of different Elvis concerts over time, Luke reckons even if you’re not a hunk of burning love for Elvis before seeing this, you might be after.
And we throw in a cheeky plug right at the end for Climate Action Week Sydney! Get on it!
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
We're back, and we're kicking off a big year with the first annual LMSU Summer Book Club! That is right, Tennant, Frankie, Luke and Alison curled up with a climate themed read over summer: Existential Politics: Why Global Climate Institutions Are Failing and How to Fix Themby Jessica F Green.
What did we make of it? Views were... mixed at best. Tune in to find out more, and if you are so inclined this book is available on Kindle!
--
Our hearts go out to everyone impacted by Victorian bushfires over summer, within the climate and energy community and beyond. You can help out by chipping a few bucks to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal.
--
We'll be returning to regularly scheduled programming in a couple of weeks, but until then there is a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, explore the back catalogue, and leave us a voicemail!
Give the gift of LMSU BoCo to your loved ones!
In the awkward position of forgetting a Christmas gift for your beloved? Want to set your climate conscious friends up for success in 2026? Look no further than a one year subscription to LMSU’s Patreon which gets you bonus, subscriber-only episodes - unpacking the sector decarbonisation plans with special guests - and all manner of additional absolute silliness, like our recent bonus episode of Luke, Tennant and Frankie’s Dungeons & Dragons adventure. Hop to it!
—
The 2025 Wonky Award
It’s that time of the year when your intrepid hosts dole out the Wonky award for our favourite paper of the year! We revive the recurring argument about the criteria for the award and don’t let the fact that two of our three finalists weren’t even papers stop us. Our finalists and highly commended for 2025 are:
- ‘Abundance’ by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
- ‘Quarterly Essay 99: Woodside Versus The Planet’ by Marianne Wilkinson
- ‘The New Energy Trade: Harnessing Australian renewables for global development’ by Reuben Finighan at The Superpower Institute.
While there was no denying the zeitgeisty vibe impact of Abundance on the political discourse in Australia and all-round appreciation for Marianne Wilkinson’s thoughtful provocation on the influence of gas giant Woodside, your intrepid hosts all rallied around the seminal ‘New Energy Trade’ paper from the Superpower Institute as having a clear-eyed vision and significant and ongoing impact on policy thinking around Australia’s green export potential. Bravo to Reuben Finighan and colleagues at TSI for winning the 2025 Wonky Award! A custom meme will find its way to your socials in the not-too-distant future!
Holiday Movie Special
We’ve always wondered how many of our eagle-eyed Summerupperers got the movie reference in our podcast title ‘Let Me Sum Up’, taken from none other than the iconic, swashbuckling fantasy fairy tale "The Princess Bride" - so it was INCONCEIVABLE that we choose any other movie for our 2025 Holiday Special. From the origin story around choosing the pod name (including the names that didn’t make the cut), how this movie has influenced us and where we saw it first, to our favourite moments from an all-star cast and the endless choice of banger quotes, we go long! Such is our mutual love for this movie, there was no containing the joy of this Holiday Special.
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: a bit of light holiday reading with the equally zeitgeisty and current The Secret Historyby Procopius? You tell us which current Australian political figure comes to mind when you hear Tennant’s quote from the book.
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a very late to the party endorsement for Stranger Things on Netflix, which she is just getting around to watching. Better late than never!
Luke’s One More Thing is: Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another which is nothing short of masterpiece and still showing in the odd cinema. LMSU says – see it on the big screen.
And that’s it until the New Year, Summerupperers. Don’t forget we are convening a summer book club, diving into ‘Existential Politics: Why Global Climate Institutions Are Failing And How To Fix Them’ by Jessica F. Green, and will be recording an episode to discuss sometime in January together with sometime co-host Alison Reeve.
And don’t forget there is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
P.S. don't big shout out to our friends at The NEMchat Singers, who have a proud tradition of summing the energy year in song. We hope you enjoy one of their 2025 contributions at the end of this episode, and be sure to check out the other here!
Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for a sector plan BoCo bonanza!
All aboard folks! Team LMSU is continuing our BoCo odyssey, adventuring through each of the six sector decarbonisation plans. AND we’re bringing friends! That’s right, we’re calling in even nerdier reinforcements. This week, we’ll be joined by Ag sector knower Steve Hatfield-Dodds to unpack the Agriculture and Land Sector Plan. And if somehow that isn’t temptation enough for you crazy climate cats, we can reveal that episode two of our dungeons and dragons odyssey is incoming in time for the Christmas listening of Super Summerupperers... so hop to it!
—
Main topic(s)
While we have been occupied with Conferences of Parties, developments in Australian energy and climate policy have been coming thick and fast. So what is a summing up podcast with one substantive episode left before the end of the year to do? Why, a demolition derby of All The Things, of course!
Buckle up, and tune in for:
- Klimate Krampus, AKA the Coalition’s abandonment of a net zero by 2050 target (to really get the vibe of the thing, we encourage a close read of the Liberal and National positions, such as they are )
- Climate Christmas, specifically the Albanese Government’s 2025 Climate Statement, the Climate Change Authority’s 2025 Annual Progress Report and DCCEEW’s 2025 Emissions Projections.
- Energy Eisteddfod, featuring
- AEMO’s Draft 2026 Integrated System Plan
- CSIRO’s Draft 2025-26 GenCost Report
- AEMO’s 2025 Transition Plan for System Security
- Tim Nelson and friends' NEM Review final report
- Ministers various’ ECMC Communique
- Gas Market Review rumblings and reservation speculation
- Home Battery Program recharged
- Electric Car Discount reviewed
- And for dessert, Environment Efflorescence...
- EPBC reforms passed!
One more things
Frankie’s One More Thing is – jumping on a favourite hobby horse, the imperative to tackle methane emissions, noting promising activity in NSW that could help build national momentum!
Tennant’s One More Thing is – a big spruik for our 2025 Wonky Awards! Yes that’s right, we are once again surveying the papers we covered on the podcast over the last 12 months and picking our favourite! But this year we are inviting you, dear summerupperers, to stick your oar in – leave us a voice note and tell us which paper should reign supreme!
Luke’s One More Thing is – the announcement of the first annual LMSU summer book club! Because this podcast clearly doesn't have enough corners, angles and side hustles already, Tennant, Frankie, Luke and Alison will be curling up with a climate themed read over summer and once we’ve read it, we'll chat about it on a special summer episode of the pod for release sometime in January. And what is our inaugural read for book club? Why it is Existential Politics: Why Global Climate Institutions Are Failing and How to Fix Themby Jessica F Green. Available on Kindle for a surprisingly high price! Or for a free taster, hear Jessica chat about the book on the Shift Key podcast!
Plus in special bonus spruiking, Frankie highlights the upcoming LMSU Holiday Special, in which we watch a movie and talk about it. And this year we’re changing things up – we are going to talk about a classic movie that we have heavily referenced on LMSU! But obviously it is rich pickings, so which one? Well that is up to you! Vote in our handy dandy poll now!
That was a lot. But that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
We conclude our Quokka of 2025 COP episodes by sitting down Australia's Climate and Energy Minister – and incoming COP President of Negotiations – Chris Bowen!
Referenced in this episode (in order of importance):
Luke's COP bid parody song
Chris' summer reading recommendation
Türkiye-Australia Partnership Modalities
—
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
All aboard folks! Team LMSU is continuing our BoCo odyssey, adventuring through each of the six sector decarbonisation plans. AND we’re bringing friends! That’s right, we’re calling in even nerdier reinforcements and experts to join us as we venture on. We're four in, two to go and luminaries helping us sum up so far include Dylan McConnell, Davina Rooney, Helen Rowe and Alison Reeve! And if somehow that isn’t temptation enough for you crazy climate cats, the only way you’ll see evidence of Luke, Tennant and Frankie’s cosplay efforts at our recent Chaos Trivia event is by subscribing on Patreon, so hop to it!
--
We make our best attempt to sum up all the thrills and spills of week two of COP30, and boy there were some twists in the tale: a resolution to Australia’s bid to host COP31 that no-one had on their bingo card; literal conflagrations in the COP30 pavilions; and arguably the most dramatic closing plenary of any COP, ever.
—
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
All aboard folks! Team LMSU is continuing our BoCo odyssey, adventuring through each of the six sector decarbonisation plans. AND we’re bringing friends! That’s right, we’re calling in even nerdier reinforcements and experts to join us as we venture on. We're four in, two to go and luminaries helping us sum up so far include Dylan McConnell, Davina Rooney, Helen Rowe and Alison Reeve! And if somehow that isn’t temptation enough for you crazy climate cats, the only way you’ll see evidence of Luke, Tennant and Frankie’s cosplay efforts at our recent Chaos Trivia event is by subscribing on Patreon, so hop to it!
--
We woke up expecting to record an episode about how to run a successful COP, but news reports suggested Australia may not get to host a COP at all! So ably assisted by Alex Scott – longstanding COP maven and current Senior Associate for Climate Diplomacy at the climate think tank ECCO – we talk a bit about the bid and ways for Australia to maintain a leadership position in a scenario in which it doesn't hold the presidency, the latest from the negotiations on the Big Four™️, and take some live questions from the audience.
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
All aboard folks! Team LMSU is continuing our BoCo odyssey, adventuring through each of the six sector decarbonisation plans. AND we’re bringing friends! That’s right, we’re calling in even nerdier reinforcements and experts to join us as we venture on. We're four in, two to go and luminaries helping us sum up so far include Dylan McConnell, Davina Rooney, Helen Rowe and Alison Reeve! And if somehow that isn’t temptation enough for you crazy climate cats, the only way you’ll see evidence of Luke, Tennant and Frankie’s cosplay efforts at our recent Chaos Trivia event is by subscribing on Patreon, so hop to it!
--
So we're in Belém, Brazil for COP30 where the weather is humid, the caipirinhas are delicious, the NDCs are insufficient and the action agenda is extensive! Thats right folks, we're summing up all the colour and movement of week one, with a particular focus on the procedural gambit of the Brazilian Presidency that saw the 'Big Four' issues (what a pithy coinage that is, hey T?) that threatened to bog down agreement on the negotiating agenda allocated to their own special “informal backroom consultations”, immediately rendering said consultations far more interesting that the primary negotiations!
Featuring: special guest co-host Josh Gabbatiss from Carbon Brief! Also featuring: perhaps our final (we feverishly hope so) round of COP31 host speculation!
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for a sector plan BoCo bonanza!
All aboard folks! Team LMSU is continuing our BoCo odyssey, adventuring through each of the six sector decarbonisation plans. AND we’re bringing friends! That’s right, we’re calling in even nerdier reinforcements and experts to join us as we venture on. This week, we’ll be joined by sometime co-host Alison Reeve from the Grattan Institute to unpack the Industry sector plan. And if somehow that isn’t temptation enough for you crazy climate cats, the only way you’ll see evidence of Luke, Tennant and Frankie’s cosplay efforts at our recent Chaos Trivia event is by subscribing, so hop to it!
—
With COP30 in Belem, Brazil only days away, your intrepid hosts dive into recent remarks from UN Secretary General, António Guterres, widely reported as ‘the world has missed 1.5C’, the reality being much more nuanced commentary from this climate champion as he enters his final year as Secretary General. Undoubtedly, it feels like a threshold moment as he acknowledges the world has breached 1.5C. We are now in the realm of overshoot, but the longer term of objective of stabilising temperature increases to 1.5C is still possible - keeping 1.5 alive - but only if we redouble efforts to focus on decarbonisation here and now, and flags the need to ramp up efforts on negative emissions. Significant remarks and food for thought on the real and difficult choices ahead!
Our main course
Is it 1965 or is what’s old new once again folks? Your intrepid hosts wade into the technical, controversial, futuristic yet bafflingly bootstrapped proposition that is geoengineering - shooting stuff into the sky and blocking out some sunlight, cooling the earth’s surface. What could possibly go wrong?! Well, this paper, ‘Engineering and logistical concerns add practical limitations to stratospheric aerosol injection strategies’ published in Nature and authored by Miranda Hack, V. Faye McNeill, Dan Steingart and Gernot Wagner, has some thoughts! Engineering challenges? Yes! Cost? What better use of diamond dust could there be! Governance issues? A few! What is incredibly clear from reading this paper is that there are no easy decisions when it comes to the need to consider negative emissions technologies or other novel ways of moderating temperature increases. Could it be that on closer inquiry, we should just focus on getting on with decarbonising, or is more research required?
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: more ranting about data centres! Tennant has questions about the ultimate viability of the eyewatering numbers of speculative capacity in new data centre growth, as well as the equally worrying implications for viability coal closures if much of this does come to pass. Bubble or not, we’ll find out soon enough!
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a massive shout out and thanks to 150 fabulous folk that fronted up to Chaos Trivia last week in Melbourne, including ultimate winners, No One Likes A Gentailer. Props to our co-hosts Currently Speaking, our MC extraordinaire Mark Spencer and The NEMChat Singers who added colour, movement and grooves to the chaos! With all proceeds going to the brilliant First Nations Clean Energy Network there was much to love.
Luke’s One More Thing is: a definitely-not-resentful readout of the paper he really wanted us to read this episode, IRENA’s ‘Delivering on the UAE Consensus: Tracking progress toward tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling energy efficiency by 2030.’ TL;DR is we’re going gangbusters on solar but woeful progress on energy efficiency. More to do!
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for a sector plan BoCo bonanza!
All aboard folks! Team LMSU is continuing our BoCo odyssey, adventuring through each of the six sector decarbonisation plans. AND we’re bringing friends! That’s right, we’re calling in even nerdier reinforcements and experts to join us as we venture on. This week, we’ll be joined by Helen Rowe from Climateworks to talk transport and infrastructure.
—
With a promise to provide guidance on the next five years ‘and beyond’ your intrepid hosts digested the Queensland Government Energy Roadmap 2025. It provides a major reset in some respects with continuity in others. Grabbing the headlines was the telegraphed decision to run government-owned coal assets to end of technical life but much detail still ‘TBC’ when it comes to how decisions on coal will be made.Transmission is getting a big overhaul, renewables still gonna be big but maybe not so much on the wind front. More questions raised than answered here for now as Luke is left pondering the wisdom of scrapping a bicameral parliament in the great northern state!
Our main course
With a tantalising title of ‘Bills Down, Emissions Down: A practical path to net zero electricity’ your intrepid hosts are having what the Grattan Institute is serving! A timely provocation from Alison Reeve, Tony Wood, Dominic Jones and Ben Jefferson on the value - and they argue necessity - of reinstating a price on carbon in the electricity sector. The world has changed since the last time carbon pricing was discussed in the energy sector and the folks from Grattan argue the Safeguard Mechanism presents a ready made vehicle to get the job done. And they don’t forget to remind us of earlier work in their report Climate Phoenix that shows how the Safeguard could evolve into a broader emissions trading scheme, Much food for thought ahead of the 2026-27 Safeguard review!
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: his appearance at an event hosted by the University of Adelaide, festively titled, ‘Livin La Vida BoCA’! No guesses as to what that was about: a whisper of chat about border carbon adjustments and our man Mr Reed manifests!
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a frustrating one-year delay to the vote by the International Maritime Organisation on the adoption of an emissions levy on shipping, following concerted lobbying from the Trump administration.
Luke’s One More Thing is: the long awaited and celebrated launch of the Commercial Building Disclosure Roadmap! Finally After previous reviews gathered dust on shelves, we finally have a plan for expanding use of Australia’s globally leading NABERS rating scheme in disclosing the nergy performance of more building types. Huzzah!
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for a sector plan BoCo bonanza!
All aboard folks! Team LMSU is embarking on a BoCo odyssey over the the next couple of months, adventuring through each of the six sector decarbonisation plans. AND we’re bringing friends! That’s right, we’re calling in even nerdier reinforcements and experts to join us as we venture on. For our first deep dive, The Planned and the Penurious (Energy and Electricity Sector Plan), we were joined by Energy wizard Dylan McConnell! Our second outing, 2 Planned: 2 Penurious (Built Environment), will feature buildings maven Davina Rooney!
—
While it’s no Planned and the Penurious, your intrepid hosts have been following the final laps of the NDC Grand Prix as a flurry of countries have raced (?) to lodge their 2035 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. China’s commitment to cut emissions 7–10% below peak levels by 2035 is dissected: an under promise, over deliver scenario? Almost certainly based on their track record. India is progressing through the pack, Europe stuck in the pit lane with internal negotiations, the US is doing doughnuts in the car park, and what on earth do we make of the corner-cutting of Russia’s retrograde move? And what about the two-thirds of countries still in the garage that haven't even gotten around to submitting a climate pledge yet? Is this Trump Administration dirty pool? Luke thinks maybe, Tennant is sceptical, but it certainly makes for an interesting COP and raises questions about the Paris Agreement’s “ratchet” mechanism and the consequences (or lack thereof) for backsliding or just ghosting the party altogether. We commend you to Climate Resource’s NDC country snapshots as a handy dandy resource!
Our main course
One of your intrepid hosts may have described reading the recently published National Climate Risk Assessment as ‘eating our climate risk vegetables’ given the dense and confronting nature of this 250+ page report. But jokes aside, team LMSU wanted to shine a spotlight and give our listeners a sense of the breadth and depth of this significant piece of work from Australia’s Climate Service: fifty six nationally significant climate risks across eight key functional systems, with seven additional risks highlighted for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Eleven risks receive deeper analysis, assessed across three warming scenarios (1.5°C, 2°C, 3°C) and three time horizons (2025, 2050, 2090). While your intrepid hosts read the whole thing cover to cover, we reckon it’s designed as a more modular report and for those interested, we suggest reading the executive summary and use the table of contents to navigate to areas of interest.
This paper reaffirmed the ‘why’ many of us are working in climate and energy and team LMSU is thinking of all you Summerupperers out there, more power to your arms!
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: a book on climate change and energy transition, “Clearing the Air” by Hannah Ritchie. Simple and snappy answers to the many and diverse questions people have on climate,Tennant declares lucid, reasonable and a goodun!
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a plug for the upcoming Investor Group on Climate Change Summit 2025, coming up in Sydney on October 16-17 and featuring eminences such as Al Gore and not one, not two, but ALL THREE hosts of LMSU!
Luke’s One More Thing is: some listener mail from friend of the pod Purdie Bowden who had some thoughts on comments made by Alison Reeve on a previous episode about expertise not being valued in the public service. She’s advocating for an overhaul of APS recruitment practices and progression to value specialist skill sets, support public servants to upskill, allow cross pollination between public and private sectors and lots more very sensible excellent suggestions. Hear, hear!
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
Time is running out to get your tickets for Chaos Trivia!
Team LMSU is joining forces with the fabulous folks from Currently Speaking for a blockbuster crossover event, with special guests, the NEMchat Singers. Chaos Trivia is set for the first night of the All Energy Conference on Wednesday 29 October in Melbourne, and as predicted, tickets are selling like hotcakes with only a few left! There will be trivia! Role playing? Musical interludes! Food! Drinks! And Tennant is still committed to some wizard cosplay! All proceeds go to the First Nations Clean Energy Network so - RUN, don’t walk and snag tix for you or a whole trivia team.
—
Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a target! Your intrepid hosts reflect on the many and varied reactions to the slick and stage managed birthing of the Climate Change Authority’s advice on a 2035 target and the Government’s acceptance of their advice to adopt a target of 62-70% emissions reduction on 2005 levels by 2035.
Simultaneously declared “Economy wrecking” (Opposition), “Weak and disappointing” (Greens) and “The sweet spot” (Prime Minister Albanese), it looks like business groups broadly land in the “benign toleration” camp and environment groups unhappy with the bottom end of the range. What do we reckon? The real debate starts now on the level of ambition needed in the policies to get to the top of the range—especially since current policies only get us to about 51% by 2035.
Looking for fodder for your own opinion? Check out the op-eds penned by Luke and Adam Morton, and Adam's conversation with CCA Chair Matt Kean.
Our main course
It wasn’t just the targets the Government served up last week that had your intrepid hosts salivating at the degustation menu of climate policy offerings to sample. Treasury modelling, NDCs, sector plans, OH MY!
But y’all know the LMSU crew can’t resist the sweet tantalising temptation of a seriously nerdy modelling exercise and so it was decided - there was never really any question - to the Treasury buffet we go! With three scenarios to unpack, a friendship of climate models used - TIM, MIRA, EMM, ALEX, anyone? There was a lot to digest in here!
Eye watering economic upsides for green exports, signalling on declining fossil fuel exports, the cost of delay and some seriously refreshing honesty about limitations of modelling, there was something for everyone here and some significant foundations being laid for the future debate of climate policy in Australia.
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: a fun Well Actually post, “Why every Sankey diagram you’ve ever seen is wrong” by Michael Liebreich
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a shout out from Marian Wilkinson in response to our recent episode on her Quarterly Essay on Woodside, saying she wanted to provoke a broader discussion on the influence of large companies like Woodside on federal and state politics and local communities. Love your work Marian!
Luke’s One More Thing is: a plug for his other podcast, First Fuel, which features his recent interview with Dr. Saul Griffith at the Energy in WA conference in which Saul predicts the economics of electrification will spur a rapid decline in gas exports and urged a pivot to clean commodities.
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
In this special, rapid reaction bonus episode (freed from the paywall, in the National Interest) we provide the hottest of hot takes on Australia's new 2035 emissions reduction target, and the 1000+ pages of documents released by the Albanese Government this week. You're welcome!
We'll be back in your feeds next Friday to talk Treasury modelling.
Meanwhile...
Step right up and get your tickets for Chaos Trivia!
Team LMSU is joining forces with the fabulous folks from Currently Speaking for a blockbuster crossover event, with special guests, the NEMchat Singers! Chaos Trivia is set for the first night of the All Energy Conference on Wednesday 29 October in Melbourne. There will be trivia! Role playing? Musical interludes! Food! Drinks! And Tennant in some wizard cosplay, which should frankly be reason enough! All proceeds go to the First Nations Clean Energy Network and we reckon tix will sell like hotcakes, so - run, don’t walk and snag tix for you or a whole trivia team.
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
Step right up and get your tickets for Chaos Trivia!
Team LMSU is joining forces with the fabulous folks from Currently Speaking for a blockbuster crossover event, with special guests, the NEMchat Singers! Chaos Trivia is set for the first night of the All Energy Conference on Wednesday 29 October in Melbourne. There will be trivia! Role playing? Musical interludes! Food! Drinks! And Tennant in some wizard cosplay, which should frankly be reason enough! All proceeds go to the First Nations Clean Energy Network and we reckon tix will sell like hotcakes, so - run, don’t walk and snag tix for you or a whole trivia team.
—
Targets! Targets! Targets! Have we reached peak 2035 target fever? You betcha, and it’s a smorgasbord with climate and business groups serving up their preferred target. Which one is just right? From the bottom-up analysis from EY with practical can-do actions to achieve 65-75% to Deloitte’s top-down analysis for Business for 75 suggesting a 75% target would grow the economy more than a 65% target, there was one bit of modelling the subject of much chatter, and that didn’t recommend a particular target at all! McKinsey’s modelling for the BCA took a look at modelled costs for achieving 50, 60 and 70% targets but omitted any analysis of benefits, didn’t consider global impacts and seemed to make some drastic assumptions about the impact on gas exports (but hard to know as no assumptions were published). The verdict? BCA seems to be trying to thread the needle in navigating different members’ views and… it could have been worse!
Our main course
This week your intrepid hosts pack the passports and FIFO into that GST-sapping, resource-rich, beachy utopia that is WA as we soak up Marian Wilkinson’s Quarterly Essay, ‘Woodside vs The Planet: how a company captured a country’. This cracker of an essay unpacks the complex relationship between Woodside, successive WA and Federal governments, and local communities. A particularly nuanced and sensitive account of impacts to the Murujuga people’s struggle for influence in the preservation of their cultural heritage is contrasted with accounts of shareholder action and activists calling out the cognitive dissonance from Woodside in claiming support for climate action while expanding plans for fossil gas extraction and export well beyond 2050. This was not the policy solutions paper Tennant wanted it to be, but we debated the merits of supply-side activism to shut down fossil fuel exports and whether the WA community would even be on board with that. This essay paints a vivid picture of Woodside’s omnipresence in WA and for a bunch of blow-in east coasters, we learned a lot!
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: the International Maritime Organisation’s upcoming vote on a global carbon pricing scheme for shipping— even with the US reportedly opposed, the vote is expected to pass. Yay for rare moments of multilateral innovation!
Frankie’s One More Thing is: the Investor Front Door is officially open! Or at least ajar for a couple of pilot projects. This could grease the wheels for Future Made in Australia projects OR could add more layers of helpful bureaucracy. Implementation matters!
Luke’s One More Thing is: for the fans of good periodicals out there, a solid vote for the latest edition of Foreign Affairs, which features essays on US-China tech competition, critical minerals, AI, and Australia’s role in the Pacific.
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
‘Abundance v Sufficiency: Dawn of Justice’ T-Shirt Edition
The sufficiency movement is winning… at least when it comes to LMSU merch! If you haven’t read Abundance but keep finding yourself sucked into conversations about it, have we got the “No I haven’t read Abundance, that’s what podcasts are for” t-shirt for you! Merch as a proxy for ideological dominance? You decide. Run, don’t walk to our merch page and grab the limited edition Abundance tee: www.letmesumup.net/p/merch/.
—
Productivity Palooza 2025 continues like the perpetual festival the PC wished for and your intrepid hosts round up some of the big-ticket climate and energy related outcomes of Jim Chalmers’ roundtable. Environmental approvals? Hot to trot, before 2025 is out! Road user charging? Definitely happening, but only for EVs for now! Unlocking more investment from Aussie super funds? I spy with my little eye a performance benchmark test redesign!
And what of the National Construction Code pause and reform? The suggestion of a lengthy pause to NCC updates resulted in exasperated bemusement at the boneheadedness of it all from climate folk, subsequently tempered by what was announced, a more modest pause until 2029. The verdict? Maybe focusing on the fact the NCC itself was a productivity reform is a good start, and while we’re at it, avoid scapegoating energy efficiency changes that save households money. AI to streamline the code and everything else will clearly save us all!
Our main course
It’s time for some game theory as these beautiful minds leap into the climate geopolitics multiverse of Michael Mehling’s paper, ‘In The Vortex Of Great Power Competition: Climate, Trade and Geostrategic Rivalry in U.S.-China-EU Relations’. We take the green pill and immerse ourselves in three different universes, from a ‘Race to the Top’ where competitive cooperation drives climate innovation, to ‘Geopolitical Fragmentation’ where nationalism stalls progress and maybe leads to thermonuclear war? And the most intriguing of all, ‘Reversed Leadership’ where China leads the global decarbonisation charge, taking the mantle of global leadership from the US. China looms large across all three scenarios, driven by its increasing dominance in clean tech, but parts and combinations of all three scenarios are entirely plausible today. This short, timely paper packs a lot of punch!
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: the 2025 Luxton Memorial Lecture at the University of Adelaide, delivered by none other than friend and sometime co-host of the pod, Alison Reeve!
Frankie’s One More Thing is: the Climate Change Authority’s 2025 issues paper consultation, asking a range of questions on the effectiveness of the government’s response to climate change. If you have thoughts, and we’ll bet you do, chip them a response by 1 September!
Luke’s One More Thing is: a shout out to friend of the pod, Dylan McConnell, who - in response to our last episode on the NEM review - reminds us that visibility of large, industrial loads is just as important as aggregated is also in the sights of Nelson and his panel. Point well made sir!
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
‘Abundance v Sufficiency: Dawn of Justice’ T-Shirt Edition
With a sufficiency of sufficiency-themed t-shirts now on the streets, the universe is out of balance and your intrepid hosts need to balance the sufficiency yin with an abundance yang! And OH BOY did we have an abundance of abundance-themed t-shirt ideas for you. YOU need not have Abundance FOMO any longer. Run, don’t walk to our merch page and grab the limited edition Abundance tee: www.letmesumup.net/p/merch/.
—
It’s Productivity Palooza 2025 and invited to the hottest party in town (this here podcast of course) is the one and only Alison Reeve who joins your intrepid hosts in a Productivity Commission report launch party! Landing in Jim Chalmers’ hot little hands before the big Economic Reform Roundtable in Canberra (the other hottest party in town), the PC’s interim report, “Investing in Cheaper, Cleaner Energy and the Net Zero Transformation” has a grab bag of ideas: Adaptation - getting its moment, finally! Approvals - strike teams and make em’ fast! Carbon pricing - safeguard harder! Also check out this excellent OpEd from Alison in the AFR.
Our main course
I’m Wonky But I’m Worth It might have been the unofficial subtitle of the latest contribution to reform of the National Electricity Market by expert panel Tim Nelson, Paula Conboy, Ava Hancock and Phil Hirschhorn. That’s right, your intrepid hosts evidently didn’t have anything else to do last weekend than consume the 220-page elephant of the “National Electricity Market wholesale market settings review” draft report (we did, but we read it anyway – you're welcome). While heavy on financial jargon, we wonder whether this might be the political bullet proof vest this policy needs, lest the ESEM join the acronym soup grave of NEM review solutions past! Targeted upgrades to existing architecture across the spot market (visibility of DER!), medium-term derivatives (more liquidity via market-making obligations!) and long-term investment signals (enter, Electricity Services Entry Mechanism!) with a partridge in a pear tree and consumer reforms (the epilogue that Frankie thinks deserves a prologue).
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: the greatest movie ever made!? WARNING: 3.5 hours and carbon monoxide poisoning awaits.
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a watching brief on the expert panel on atmospheric measurement of fugitive methane emissions in Australia, chaired by former chief scientist Dr Cathy Foley, and just how this might contribute to policy - Global Methane Pledge, ahem!
Alison’s One More Thing is: is the gas network problem solving itself? A Victorian gas utility helping customers go all-electric feels like cause for celebration in putting consumers first!
Luke’s One More Thing is: a shout out and salute to outgoing Clean Energy Council CEO Kane Thornton, for his tireless work supporting and leading the growth of Australia’s renewables industry and for being an all-round awesome human. Go well and see you soon Kane!
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
‘More Sufficiency Now!’ tees - for a sufficiently limited time only
There may no longer be an insufficiency of sufficiency themed t-shirts walking the streets but YOUR opportunity to join the burgeoning sufficiency movement is rapidly closing like the Overton window on climate ambition! YOU can make sufficiency a thing by heading to our merch page and grabbing one of these tees, which will only be available for the next week before they disappear like the t-shirt you didn’t need in the first place. Run, don’t walk over to: www.letmesumup.net/p/merch/.
—
From the Torres Strait to the Hague, this week climate was in the courts and your intrepid hosts cross examined not one but two landmark climate court cases: one dismissed in Australia, one seismic win in the International Court of Justice. While the case Uncle Pabai Pabai and Uncle Paul Kabai brought against the Commonwealth to Australia’s Federal Court found the Federal Government does not owe a duty of care to prevent climate change impacts on Torres Strait Islanders, the judgement was not without a judicial side-eye at past governments’ climate targets—“window dressing” and “no regard for science” were phrases that made it into the ruling. This excellent summary from Adam Morton at the Guardian is worth a read.
Further afield, what started as a grassroots campaign from Pacific Island students led to a unanimous advisory opinion from the UN’s highest court. Their view? States have binding obligations to protect the climate—and yes, they could be held liable for climate damages. The implications? This legal mic drop will have global ripple effects for some time. Watch this space!
Our main course
Refined Ambitions or Rube Goldberg machines powered by beef fat and hope? Deloitte’s recent report for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, “Refined Ambitions: Exploring Australia’s Low Carbon Liquid Fuel Potential’ made it clear that clean-ish fuels can be yours, for a HEFA-ty price! Your intrepid hosts levelled-up on acronyms (HEFA, ATJ, FT, and PTL, anyone?) and zeroed in on aviation, freight, and mining as the big targets for low carbon, liquid fuels. And speaking of zeroes. These fuels are so expensive - like $1,000 to $5,000 per tonne of CO₂ abated expensive - this report had Luke feeling bullish on green hydrogen! If we’re fuelling our planes with $10/litre synthetic champagne, maybe it’s time to rethink the flight plan. No easy wins here.
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: the Shift Key podcast Summer School miniseries, with Robinson Meyer and Jesse Jenkins! Basics; thermal techs; renewable techs. More to come!
Frankie’s One More Thing is: The UN report Seizing the moment of opportunity - ahead of COP30 and the next round of NDCs it’s efficiency, renewables, electrification for the win!
Luke’s One More Thing is: An on-the-ground report from Allegra Spender’s tax roundtable.
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
‘More Sufficiency Now!’ tees - for a limited time only
Inspired by listener Rob Law’s question on why sufficiency isn’t more of a thing in Australia, Frankie speculates anew that a insufficiency of sufficiency-themed t-shirts may be to blame... but no more! YOU can make sufficiency a thing by heading to our merch page and grabbing one of these tees, which will only be available for the next four weeks. Run, don’t walk over to: www.letmesumup.net/p/merch/.
—
It might not be Gassy McGasface, but don’t let the innocuously named ‘Gas Market Review’ fool you! This is a 3-for-the-price-of-1 all-you-can-eat buffet of gas policy options, cooked up by Ministers Chris Bowen and Madeleine King, featuring the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism (ADGSM), Mandatory Gas Code of Conduct AND the Heads of Agreement. And what of the infamous Future Gas Strategy? Could it be on the secret menu for an encore at the ol’ DCCEEW cafe? We reckon now is as good a time as any to craft a holistic gas strategy - including domestic demand and future export strategies.
Our main course
This week your intrepid hosts are tripping the light taxonomic as we frolic through the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute’s ‘Australian Sustainable Finance Taxonomy - V1 2025’. There is a lot to digest here as the taxonomy traverses technical screening criteria for green, transitional and decarbonisation measures across six sectors of the economy, do no significant harm criteria and minimum social safeguards. All while ensuring interoperability with other countries’ taxonomies and setting the scene for further future uses of the Australian Government. Phewy! Hat tip to the fine folks at ASFI for this epic adventure, at one point prompting a somewhat unfortunate analogy to another (much more problematic) epic adventure in Gone With The Wind. We’re Sorry.
One more things
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a PSA for an interesting-looking and excellently-punny named report, “Refined Ambitions: Exploring Australia’s Low Carbon Liquid Fuel Potential’ from the folks at the CEFC and Deloitte.
Tennant’s One More Thing is: the European Commission proposes adding some form of export adjustment (rebate) to the EU CBAM!
Luke’s One More Thing is: a warm fuzzy hug for his own four letter acronym policy pet, the Wholesale Demand Response Mechanism (WDRM)! The AEMC has found it’s delivering way more savings than it costs to run, which should vanquish any rearguard action to have it wound down!
And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to
letmesumup.net
to support us on Patreon, procure sufficiency themed merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!
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
letmesumup.net
for merch, back episodes, and your chance to leave us a voicemail!
Support us on Patreon and grab some merch
The merch is flying off the shelves (and into Summerupperer mailboxes near and far!). The website is live (and functional!) and the bonus episodes are tastier than Tennant’s home baked maruspice cookies. Join the Super Summerupperer secret society at www.letmesumup.net and click “Support LMSU” to get your fortnightly BoCo fix. Because THERE. IS. (STILL). TOO. MUCH.
—
This week your intrepid hosts are joined by newly minted Grattan Institute Energy & Climate Program Director Alison Reeve to unpack the Productivity Commission’s climate musings and a spicy new paper from Dr. Ron Ben-David that dares to ask: that gas network RAB is kind of annoying... what if we just sold it?
But first... are the folks at the PC drinking the Abundance KoolAid? Investing in Cheaper, Cleaner Energy and the Net Zero Transformation is one of five pillars the PC is working on to inform the Treasurer’s upcoming and very exclusive ROUNDTABLE lock-up/love-in on productivity. What’s on the menu? Reducing the cost of meeting carbon targets, speeding up energy infrastructure approvals and unlocking private investment in adaptation. Frankie smells a Cabinet book club. Alison wants to know why we’re not talking about construction productivity across sectors. All of us want more than vibes and vertical silos but agreed giving adaptation some love is overdue!
Our main course
If the Gas RAB is a 500 lb gorilla and is in desperate need of slimming down, who’s paying the bills for Ozempic? In his paper ‘The 500 lb gorilla of the gas transition, or: Confronting the regulatory asset base (RAB) problem’, Ron Ben-David proposes a bold fix for the gas death spiral with his characteristic panache: Revalue the gas RAB every five years, carve off the stranded value into a new financial asset (opening up an exciting branding opportunity – Delta Assets RAB Bucks, or RABcoin - take your pick!) and then auction it off. Is this Saving consumers by slugging (the same) consumers? Tennant reckons financialisation would lead to better transparency. Frankie suggests networks surely can’t have their cake and eat it too. Alison thinks it’s brilliantly clever, but who’s buying? Luke declares it’s so confusing and opaque, it just might work!
One more things
Alison’s One More Thing is: A very happy anniversary to the RET, whose legislation was introduced to Parliament on 22 June 2000. Little did they know that 9500 GWh would lead to so much more…
Tennant’s One More Thing is: a li’l bright spot in the USA, where Fervo Energy is making geothermal advances galore. Watch this space!
Frankie’s One More Thing is: The Australian Sustainable Finance Taxonomy is here! Congrats to the ASFI team for launching this important work.
Luke’s One More Thing is: Hugh White’s new Quarterly Essay, Hard New World: Our Post American Future.
That’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to www.letmesumup.net for merch, back episodes, and your chance to leave us a voicemail. And remember: if you’re not wearing your LMSU tee while listening to us talk about LMSU tees, are you even summing it up?
It’s hard to believe your intrepid hosts birthed this little pod into the world a whole three years ago, but here we are! Still readin’ papers, still summing em’ up for YOU, our amazing Summerupperers!
And to mark the occasion, we are celebrating with a triple scoop of gas policy, political philisophy and pod merch madness! That’s right, we’re SHIRTFRONTING the lot of you! After far, far too many ‘Shirtfronting with Frankie’ segments, Team LMSU is delighted to offer our very own a la carte merch menu! T-shirts and tote bags and mugs, oh my! All brought to you via our brand-spanking-new website glow-up at www.letmesumup.net! There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: listen to the pod, leave us a voicemail, support us on Patreon and deck yourself out in LMSU’s finest. Run, don’t walk over to www.letmesumup.net.
—
Gas, gas, gas! After Frankie’s extended victory lap post winning the longest-running, slowest-moving merch race around, we talk gas. SO MUCH gas. First, Woodside’s North West Shelf gets the green light to operate until 2070 from incoming Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt. Cue despair from climate advocates and a 600-page consultant report that may or may not be acid rainwashing ancient rock art. But while this decision went Woodside's way, gas market fundamentals may not be so kind; keeping this facility pumping beyond the early 2030s will require opening up the Browse Basin, and there are big question marks over the fundamental economics. There is some great analysis on this around if you look for it, not least from IEEFA's Joshua Runciman, which we highly recommend!
Next, a decision from the Victorian Government to approve Viva’s construction of an LNG Import Terminal in Geelong. Magic gas ships? A lesser of three evils? Who woulda thunk it! Stranded assets are so 2022. Lots of complexity to unpack in these decisions, and we have our usual abundance of thoughts!
Our main course
Ever hungry for new feasts of ideas, your intrepid hosts were not content to blow out the candles at this birthday party with a mere paper, oh no! We gifted ourselves an abundance of anecdotes - and maybe a famine of fixes - devouring the infamous book doing the rounds in US liberal politics circles, “Abundance” by Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein. This pro-growth, anti-red tape manifesto is a 'ripper' according to Jim Chalmers and will clearly be doing the rounds in Australian political circles, but what do your intrepid hosts make of it all? A provocation for a “liberalism that builds”, the challenges in housing, health, energy and infrastructure all feel familiar. For these three policy wonks, we would have really liked a list, not just a lens! Lots to digest, provocations and limitations but ultimately food for Australian thought.
One more things
Our collective One More Thing is a massive thanks to YOU, our delightful Summerupperers! We continue to love doing the pod, getting to spend time with each other and meeting so many of you, out in the world! Our gift to you (and ourselves really, who’s kidding) is the fully operational climate nerd command center that is www.letmesumup.net. Listen to episodes, shop the merch, leave us a voicemail, or just marvel at the fact that we finally have an About page!
And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! Leave us a voicemail with your hot tips and suggestions for papers, and while you’re at it, grab an LMSU T-shirt, mug or tote at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Team LMSU are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Every fortnight, the day after a regular episode drops, there will be a delicious, subscriber only BoCo episode. Because, THERE IS TOO MUCH! This week we are taking stock of post-election shenanigans and implications for climate policies. Run, don’t walk over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
It took something majorly main course to distract your entrepid hosts from microwaving some more post-election popcorn (never fear, this week’s BoCo episode for Patreon subscribers will provide your fix). To detoxing from domestic politics we read this excellent analysis from Lauri Myllyvirta for Carbon Brief suggesting China’s emissions may have peaked! Despite previous drops in emissions being linked to economic downturns, this time new installed renewable generation outpaced energy demand growth and displaced coal. What a delightful palate cleanser!
Our main paper
“Unlimited Power!!!” cackled your intrepid hosts as we imbibed this week’s paper, The New Energy Trade: harnessing Australian renewables for global development from Reuben Finighan at the Superpower Institute. This cracker of a report had us stroking chins, making plans for world domination and tallying the BAGILLION dollars in export value from Australia’s potential as a global leader in the ‘superpower trade’. This paper was methodical and compelling in fleshing out Ross Garnaut’s vision of Australia as a renewable energy superpower - and what a huge juicy prize to be won! We recommend sampling the summary report for super curious Summerupperers.
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: The Victorian Transmission Plan, 2025 edition, Draft for Consultation
Frankie’s One More Thing is: the PC rolling up its sleeves and speeding up approvals for new energy infra, encouraging private investment in adaptation, and reducing the cost of meeting carbon targets are in its sights!
Luke’s One More Thing is: putting listeners on notice for LMSU’s first book club episode! That’s right, we’re going to read (or perhaps listen) to Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's provocative 'less regulation may be better for the environment' bestseller Abundance, and sum it up sometime soon. Get reading folks!
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Usually our Bonus Content is behind the paywall, but this week we're getting the Blue Screen Of Death from Apple Podcasts (somewhat ironic) and they won't let us post the show!
So while we are on hold with IT, we're posting this week's bonus episode in the main feed so that A. those of you that are subscribed in Apple Podcasts get the ep. and B. those of you that aren't get a taste of that sweet, sweet BoCo we're rolling out every fortnight. Because once you go BoCo you don't go back!
Join the cool kids over at https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp (or Apple Podcasts – our call is valuable to them and they will be with us shortly, so we should be back in action next week).
--
THIS WEEK ON THERE IS TOO MUCH:
Beyond the big picture politics, there are a myriad of specific climate and energy policies that will be profoundly impacted by the election result on the weekend. We wade into the weeds and give you the hottest of hot takes.
Support us on Patreon... Team LMSU are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! This year we are upping the ante and every fortnight when a regular episode drops, there will be a delicious, subscriber only BoCo episode. Because, THERE IS TOO MUCH! This week we look beyond the election and consider the implications for all the great climate and energy policy processes, both progressing and prospective! https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
This is a rapid response episode, so not much in the way of shownotes! Although you may wish to check out Luke's op-ed in RenewEconomy – penned on the plane to Auckland on Sunday – laying out the historic opportunity the Albanese Government now has before it to transform the Australian economy.
This is our episode for this week, so we'll be back a fortnight from Friday! In the meantime send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Team LMSU are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! This year we are upping the ante and every fortnight when a regular episode drops, there will be a delicious, subscriber only BoCo episode. Because, THERE IS TOO MUCH! This week we are speed dating every* party’s climate election policies so head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
- a sample approach was taken to Independents!
—
The data is in and your dedicated hosts are diving into SAFEGUARD 2: SAFE GUARDER the first season recap of the reformed and rebooted Safeguard Mechanism. SO, is it doing the job? Does it deserve the custom meme treatment from one T Reed inspired by everyone’s favourite holiday movie? Yippee Ki-Yay, Climatelovers! Time to Stay Positive as it is early days, overall emissions are down with movement up and down across facilities (see some criticisms in this Guardian article). One thing is certain though: this climate and energy podcast of record will continue to document progress!
And if you want the thrilling backstory to SAFE GUARDER, check out our back catalogue episodes:
- ‘The Last Fire In The Forest’: The Safeguard Mechanism Consultation Paper
- New Dork Times: Chubb/Safeguard Special Double Report Report Special
- Safe Guard With A Vengeance
Our main paper
The first rule of system change is: don’t talk about system change! Unless you are Jeremy Oppenheim from the consultancy outfit Systemiq and authored ‘Shock Therapy: A strategic reset for the sustainability movement’ as part of its Blue Whale Inquiry. The pitch? We need a reset! Three climate shocks, seven hot ideas and abundance in a pear tree - this provocation of a paper packs a lot in! Your intrepid hosts eat this whale one mouthful at a time.
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: an Alchemical Adventure at Conquest!
Frankie’s One More Thing is: an urge to bust out of the climate bubble, get some nature and some tunes! Hard recommend for Bluesfest for those musically inclined.
Luke’s One More Thing is: The prequel to a prequel to Star Wars: A New Hope: Andor. It is redolent with resonances with our current moment, and as an extra bonus you really don't need to be a Star Wars nerd.
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Team LMSU are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! This year we are upping the ante and every fortnight when a regular episode drops, there will be a delicious, subscriber only BoCo episode. Because, THERE IS TOO MUCH! This week we talking about the Federal election campaign so head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
Your intrepid hosts are again revisiting the geopolitics corner of the LMSU cafe and this week on the menu is a tariffpalooza! Everybody (except a few notable autocracies) was invited, though so far it resembles more of a GOT red wedding than a friendly feast of Big Macs sans Aussie beef. That’s right, EVERYBODY GETS A TARIFF! And why are we talking tariffs on a climate and energy podcast? Does the oversupply of cheap Chinese clean tech help or hinder Aussie decarbonisation plans? Is Trump generated turmoil effectively a DoS attack flooding government bandwidth around the world and pushing climate down the agenda? And how durable is this tariff stuff anyway, given it appears to be going down like a cup of cold sick with the US public? Unsurprisingly, we have thoughts.
Our main paper
Leaving the tariff bloodbath behind, this week the basic sensible things cinematic universe presents: Victorian electrification options! Your intrepid hosts revisit another beloved LMSU climate caper and take a look at a briefing note from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Advice (IEEFA), ‘Electrification regulations in Victoria would lower energy bills and reduce gas supply gaps’. The folks at IEEFA have run the numbers on the different options in the Victorian Government’s electrification RIS and their verdict for households is: electrify everything, and electrify it now! We unpack.
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: the 12 months to end March 2025 were the hottest In Australia’s recorded history (AFP report of a BOM scientist - caretaker may be holding back a BOM media release).
Frankie’s One More Thing is: the release of the final report of the Senate inquiry into Residential Electrification, featuring not one, not two, but three hosts of LMSU!
Luke’s One More Thing is: Will the EU’s rightward shift have further impacts on climate policy and ambition?
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Team LMSU are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! This year we are upping the ante and every fortnight the day after a regular episode drops, there will be a delicious, subscriber only BoCo episode. Because THERE IS TOO MUCH! Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
There was a budget! There wasn't much in it! We talked for over 50 minutes anyway!
Checks out.
Back to regularly scheduled programming next episode, so send your suggestions for papers to sum up to mailbag@letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Team LMSU are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! This year we are upping the ante and every fortnight the day after a regular episode drops, there will be a delicious, subscriber only BoCo episode. Because THERE IS TOO MUCH! Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
Your intrepid hosts construct another corner in the LMSU cafe and contemplate how the current geopolitics of it all have impacted the latest talks of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which met to decide the timeline and content outlines of their next (7th) assessment report cycle. That's right folks, it’s IPCCC time! There was a cornucopia of climate contretemps at this cluster in Hangzhou and while plenty of that includes the US, it wasn’t because of their contributions - they ghosted the talks altogether! Will they align AR7 to the next Global Stocktake in 2028? Undecided! Will there be a chapter on CDR and CCUS in the mitigation report? You betcha. And those are but a tantalising taste of the buffet on intrigues the IPCC folks served up.
And now it’s time to slip into some stretchy clothes and get comfy Summerupperers because the LMSU barbecue is firing up!
Our main paper
When a report titled “How The Sausage Is Made: Assessing Australian Policymaking Practices in the Energy Sector” from the McKell Institute and the Blueprint Institute appears on the a la carte menu, what’s a hungry LMSU crew to do?
This double-think-tank bonanza popped some banger energy policies into the meat grinder with some of the wurst to give us a recipe for how to make a better sausage. Sated? Barely! Room for more? Some gristle to clear out!
Stick a fork in this one, we’re done!
One more things
Frankie’s One More Thing is: to tantalise our Summerupperers with the promise that we'll be covering the Federal Budget in our regular public episode for main course, and serving up some exclusive extra sizzle in our BoCo episode for dessert! Make sure you don’t miss any of the juicy details and subscribe to our Patreon for the full Budget buffet!
Tennant’s One More Thing is: US mini-freakout over gas turbine cost/availability - does it mean anything for Australia? (Yes!)
Luke’s One More Thing is: Canada’s impending election is getting wild! Riding a wave of anti-Trump sentiment, Mark Carney, former head of the Bank Of Canada and climate change advocate has won leadership of the Canadian liberal party and will take over as PM from Trudeau, despite not having a seat in Parliament!
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Team LMSU are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! This year we are upping the ante and every fortnight when a regular episode drops, there will be an additional, delicious, subscriber only BoCo episode hitting the feeds as well. Because, THERE IS TOO MUCH! Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
After an extended summer vacay, Team LMSU is back - and not a minute too soon! The spidey senses of the folks at the Climate Change Authority must have been tingling and with a BOOM dropped their analysis ‘Assessing the impact of a nuclear pathway on Australia’s emissions’ on the very morning we recorded this episode.
Joined by sometime co-host and sensible energy expert superhero Alison Reeve, the crew digest this little amuse bouche: over 1 billion tonnes of extra emissions! The cost of pursuing Frontier Economics’ nuclear pathway is quite the emissions mouthful.
Sidebar nerd alert: reverse engineer graphs just like the CCA folks with this handy tool: https://www.graphreader.com/
Our main paper
In act 2 of our double nuclear paper spectacular, the LMSU crew takes on the intercontinental ballistic market outlook ‘The Path to a New Era for Nuclear Energy’ from the folk at the International Energy Agency. And Hooo-eeeee are they bullish! Their numbers don’t lie though and it’s more of a ‘let a thousand reactors bloom’ kinda sentiment than a bona-fide BOOMtime for nuclear’s share of the global pie. Our take? It’s 25 years to net zero, we got 80 SMR designs and a drive to cut costs through standardisation and sequencing. Hit It?
Aaaaand because we couldn’t get nary enough NUKES this week, after we recorded, the House Select Committee on Nuclear Energy released its Interim report for the inquiry into nuclear power generation in Australia. Bon appetit!
One more things
Alison’s One More Thing is: a recent Carbon Brief analysis that shows clean energy contributed 10% of China’s GDP in 2024. Exactly the kind of good news we could stand to see more of!
Tennant’s One More Thing is: would a Border Carbon Adjustment be a poke in the eye of a newly belligerent USA? (Rather less than the GST!)
Frankie’s One More Thing is: speculation that the implementation of the 2025 version of the National Construction Code will remain uncertain, especially with the Productivity Commission’s recent report recommending an independent review of building regulations.
Luke’s One More Thing is: that 2025 will see the delivery of sweet, delicious BoCo dessert every fortnight alongside the main course of regular episodes. Head on over to patreon.com/LetMeSumUp to make sure you don’t miss a bite.
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up today for access to coveted BoCo like extra subscriber-only episodes, including the recently released Dungeons and Dragons play-though episode. What’s not to love here? Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
The 2024 Wonkies!
We are back, one last time in 2024, with our THIRD ANNUAL BUMPER HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR SPECTACULAR! That’s right Summerupperers, ‘tis the season for the Highly Anticipated and Much Sought After awarding of the third annual Wonkies! And we have ourselves a Godzilla vs Kong vs Mothra situation on our hands, as DITRDCA faces off against CCA and DCCEEW for the best climate and energy paper we talked about on the podcast in 2024.
It was a lengthy and somewhat contentious debate this year (in which actual real world impact on emissions reduction was mystifyingly discounted), but ultimately consensus was achieved and DCCEEW and Carbon Leakage Review lead Frank Jotzo triumphed with the Carbon Leakage Review Second Consultation Paper! If you are wondering why this paper was such a corker you can hear our thoughts on it, at length, back on Episode 61.
Congratulations must also go to the runner-ups in this hard fought category, the CCA’s 2024 Issues Paper, Targets, Pathways and Progress (Episode 46) and Cleaner, Cheaper to Run Cars: The Australian New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (Episode 42). And if you want to truly appreciate the profound import of that last paper for breaking the karmic policy cycle, why not check out Developments in Australian fuel quality and vehicle emissions standards: a chronology from the Parliamentary Library!
Princess Mononoke!!
And while the Wonkies are great, what LMSU Holiday Special would be complete without discussion of a movie? And this year we take on an absolute banger, Princess Mononoke, a historical fantasy set in feudal Japan directed by acclaimed filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki.
This film has everything! Stunning anime! Giant animal gods! Wolf princesses! Feminist industrialists! Long suffering proto-centrists that wish everyone would just stop fighting and talk it out! TL;DR we vibe with this movie. So great.
You can watch it on Netflix in Australia. Also have a read of this interview with Miyazaki himself, which we reference several times in our chat.
One more things – annual pop culture edition!!!
Tennant’s One More Thing is a highly inaccessible film: Orson Welles classic F for Fake. While there isn’t a good Australian link, if you are inspired by Tennant’s endorsement and wish to go on this particular spirit quest you could start here!
Frankie likes recommending podcasts and quarterly essays, and she doesn’t disappoint this year, giving her tick to design podcast 99% Invisible and a provisional tick (not having read it yet) to George Megalogenis’ latest Quarterly Essay, Minority Report, The New Shape of Australian Politics. Which Luke reminded us is also available as an audiobook read by the author himself, if that is your thang!
Luke’s One More Thing is a couple of video game recommendations: acclaimed indie platformer Celeste, with a side helping of first party family fun in Super Mario Wonder!
Special bonus post show song!!!!
And we close out the year with one final treat; the latest offering from the NEMchat Singers, Everybody Wants to Change the Rules, a reflection on the deep and abiding dissatisfaction with our electricity market regime, set to the tune of ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World' by 80s pop icons Tears for Fears.
Thanks to NEMchat Singers Dean Lombard, Mark Henley and the mysterious ‘Gen Taylor’ for letting us share this with you. And if you enjoyed the song be sure to check out their other 2024 offering, Stake it on the Atom!
Catch you next year!!!!!
And that’s all from us in 2024 Summerupperers! We are taking a break in January but will be back with ever more reports in February 2025. In the meantime, happy holidays to you all, and while you rest up, send your hot tips, suggestions for papers and climate-themed pop culture to mailbag@letmesumup.net, and catch us over on Bluesky at @lukemenzel.bsky.social @tennantreed.bsky.social and @frankiemuskovic.bsky.social
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up today for access to coveted BoCo like bonus subscriber-only episodes, soon to include a game of Dungeons & Dragons recorded in Baku after a chat about the US election. What’s not to love here? Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
It’s a cornucopia of climate content as your intrepid hosts barely know where to start feasting as the festive season descends upon the pod. Conscious climate consumers that we are, we can’t help but indulge in a little pre-xmas pud of (yet another) NEM review. There are terms of reference, and wouldn’t you know, we have thoughts about them. The TL;DR of this NEM review is that there are a bunch of good eggs, led by Tim Nelson, in search of the successor to the Capacity Investment Scheme. And once again, heavy sighs from governance wonks and demand side proponents abound as these do not seem to be a focus. 🙄 If only someone had done some thinking about reform of our energy system governance to enable more demand side action…
…Aaaand...
...here’s one the Australian Council of Social Service, Australian Industry Group, Energy Efficiency Council and the Property Council prepared earlier! Fresh out of the oven, their report, Demanding Better, has a few ideas...
...aaand mischief managed.
Our main paper
On The Third Climate Christmas, the Climate Change Authority gave to us: their 2024 Annual Progress Report! And is Australia on the CCA’s naughty or nice list? There’s no space for such boring binaries on this podcast of note, Frankie will have you know. Australia is somewhere near the middle of the bus we reckon*. Three chunky sections and ten substantial recommendations later and you’d think your intrepid hosts would have their fill of Climatemas Content for now, but alas, all Luke wants for Christmas is a 2035 target 🥲
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: the impact of gas prices on bricks! Just how badly is housing affordability worsened thanks to rising gas prices’ impact on a double brick house? Spoiler alert. Not much. And why was Tennant asked about this anyway?
Frankie’s One More Thing is: the just launched Greater Sydney Heat Smart City Plan! This plan has its origins in a long running collab between the Western Sydney Region of Councils and Resilient Sydney, with actions and a coordinated program of work to manage city wide heat risk reduction.
Luke’s One More Thing is: a callout to all Summerupperers to vote for the climate movie your intrepid hosts should watch and sum up for our 2024 Holiday Special! Cast your vote here to determine our fate! And please, no Soylent Green devotees need respond**.
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
- Please write in if you know what this means – Ed.
** Tennant disagrees! Soylent stalwarts unite! – T
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up today for access to coveted BoCo like bonus subscriber-only episodes, including our feelpinions about the recent US election! Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
–
We left you all on a cliffhanger last episode, so for those of you paying absolutely no attention to news reports we’re here to resolve all plotlines! How much did the developed world commit in climate finance? Did the UAE dialogue generate crackling conversation, or trail off awkwardly? And how many thrilling breakthroughs can one Article 6 have in a single COP? We reveal all!
To note:
- If you want to dig into any of the texts referenced in this episode we recommend Carbon Brief’s excellent negotiating texts tracker.
- If you would like to supplement the sleep deprived, discursive ramblings of this podcast with some actual reporting, their COP29 outcomes summary is second to none.
- But if you are all like ‘read? Pfft. Give me more pods!’ you can check out Luke’s interview at COP with Assistant Minister for Climate and Energy Josh Wilson over on First Fuel.
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up today for access to coveted BoCo like bonus subscriber-only episodes, including our feelpinions about the recent US election!!. Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
Our main topic
It is Back to Baku (sort of) as Frankie, Luke and Tennant report from the ground at COP29 in Azerbaijan, and call in reinforcements (someone has to be on hand to remind us of the storied history of cover texts) in the form of climate journalism luminary Dr Simon Evans from Carbon Brief!
And there is much to discuss! How is Trump's election affecting the mood on the ground? What about those early NDCs from UK and Brazil? What is up with all those Article 6 shenanigans on Day 1? And are we any closer to closing a deal on finance at the, you know, Finance COP?
It's a lot, frankly. So if you want even more extemporaneous opinions – especially on the rich program of side events – don't forget to check out our Youtube channel for daily updates from the ground.
One more things
Tennant's one more thing is, shockingly, CBAM related, specifically the way trade issues are being raised – and shut down – at the COP. Who saw that coming?
Frankie's one more thing is
Simon's one more thing is a reflection on the through the looking glass experience of attending a climate conference in a petrostate, brought into sharp relief by an incongruous art installation on the Baku foreshore.
Luke one more thing is a plug for the Trump election reaction episode that our Patreon subscribers have just had drop into their feeds. If you are here for LMSU feelpinions on the Trump winheadon over to Patreon.com/letmesumup
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up today for access to coveted BoCo like bonus subscriber-only episodes and - dare we say it - the prospect of elusive LMSU t-shirt designs?! Only one way to find out. Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
Our Main Paper
We interrupt regular programming to bring you an extra, rapid reaction episode to a very special development. And sorry folks, it’s not the US election result, that happened after we recorded this one.
Mariah Carey has been defrosted and Christmas has come early for one member of the LMSU team in particular! That’s right folks, the threat of Tennant performing CBAM The Musical outside DCCEEW offices has resulted in the release of the government’s second consultation paper as part of its Carbon Leakage Review. A thoughtful and detailed analysis lays out the key risks of carbon leakage across different commodities in terms of trade and investment, and suggests that YES INDEED, there is a role for a Border Carbon Adjustment Mechanism. That’s right, it’s a BoCA and most definitely not a CBAM, but whatever it is, it won’t hurt a bit?!
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! We're off to Baku to take the temperature and Trump redux climate politics, but until then support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up today for access to coveted BoCo like bonus subscriber-only episodes and - dare we say it - the prospect of elusive LMSU t-shirt designs?! Only one way to find out. Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
After Frankie brazenly reclaims a corner of the pod for the infamous “Shirtfronting with Frankie” (become a Super Summerupperer for a first look at t-shirt designs!) your intrepid hosts dive into a pre-COP-primer as the next Conference of Parties is almost upon us! And never fear, the LMSU team will be on the ground in Baku, Azerbaijan, bringing you the latest on the negotiations. What’s on the menu for COP29? Finance, dollars and more finance! Negotiations on a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance are centre stage, co-chaired by Australia’s own Minister Bowen. And as pressure is due to ramp up on the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions, let’s not forget the spectre of the US election and its impact on the mood on the ground…
Bonus: check out our wrap of last year’s COP28 as your amuse bouche for Baku!
Our main paper
Having failed to come up with a compelling turn of phrase for NCQG (we’ll work on it) we dive into the OECD’s Climate Finance Provided and Mobilised by Developed Countries in 2013-22, a summary on how we’ve faired against the existing $100 billion a year goal. So, have we made it? OECD says yes, in 2022. LMSU says, asterisk! Conditions apply.
Bonus nerdery: a draft framework for negotiations on the NCQG, including how they might be defining developed vs developing countries.
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: listener feedback from Deeper Decarb on our National Hydrogen Strategy episode who said we had neglected the possibility of electrolysis leading to higher emissions without focusing on where projects would be sourcing energy. T’s response? The Govt reckons she’ll be apples! Subsidies and the need for low cost energy to be competitive means. Also check out DD’s substack!
Frankie’s One More Thing is: the recent and unexpected politicisation of, of all things, the National Construction Code! That’s right, there’s a stoush brewing over whether there should be a 10-year pause to further changes to the NCC, which, in this intrepid host’s view, would be BONKERS in the critical decade for climate action.
Luke’s One More Thing is: a tribute to the LMSU ‘Super Summerupperers’ trivia team who managed a podium finish, coming in third at Currently Speaking’s trivia night in Melbourne. Special thanks to listeners Dylan, Dean and Ben for joining us! If only we’d listened to you at some critical moments. But we won't flog that dead horse!
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up today for access to coveted BoCo like bonus subscriber-only episodes and tasty extras like our episode notes, custom memes and climate reworks of classic songs - it’s a vibe. Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
This week your intrepid hosts pop the frunk to take a look at just what is going on with trucks! Thanks to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management and the Smart Freight Centre, we charged up on the latest with this zippy investor guide to zero emissions commercial vehicles that declares the time is NOW because progress is nascent in this part of the transport puzzle. In what looks to be another victory for electrification, battery electric vehicles are on the sweet steep learning curve and currently wiping the floor with hydrogen fuel cell trucks at 90% of the global market this year.
Our main paper
In yet another worrying sign we just can’t stop the GASbagging, we’re back for more to find out just How much gas does the future grid need? Thanks to Jay Gordon at the Institute for Energy Economic and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), we get a corrective on some of the spin from the gas industry who claim the 2024 ISP confirmed “ gas-powered generation will play a greater role in the National Electricity Market (NEM) to 2050” (!) Our hot take? More like: gas peakers = the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the ISP matrix.
Bonus nerdery discussed:
- Could this major German green steel project be on the ropes? Possibly!
- Is every Matrix movie other than the original terrible? Yes!
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: the worrying continuation of wild conspiracy theories - adopted by US Republicans - linked to geoengineering that now claim that the devastating Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton was being engineered by… the government!? Yikes.
Frankie’s One More Thing is: the quiet release of the Australian Government’s ‘Achieving 30 by 30 on land’ - the national roadmap for protecting and conserving 30% of Australia’s land by 2030 - the week after hosting a Global Nature Summit. We’ll let you Summerupperers read between the lines on that one!
Luke’s One More Thing is: to announce the lucky winners of tickets to join us at Currently Speaking's trivia night coming up in Melbourne on Wednesday, 23 October! Welcoming Super Summerupperers Dylan, Dean and Ben to Team LMSU - It’s ON folks!
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net
.
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up today for access to coveted BoCo like our recent bonus episodes on nuclear (could it work?) Plus tasty extras like our episode notes, custom memes and climate themed reworks of classic songs - it’s a vibe. Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
This week your intrepid hosts are joined by LMSU co-host-at-large - aka the sensible lady in paragraph five - none other than Grattan climate maven Alison Reeve!
After hanging out for the much anticipated speech by Peter Dutton on the Opposition’s nuclear policy, at an event titled “Nuclear: could it work?” your intrepid hosts can report shrug emojis with side of skeptical brow emojis because there was NO new information in that speech. NADA. That did not stop the enterprising folks at IEEFA, who penned this analysis suggesting nuclear would add big $$ to all our energy bills and have no hope of making returns, ever. Our humble take? Pay big for it we will (T’s got some dodgy numbers!), but maybe through taxes rather than our energy bills. Tomayto, tomahto. Bless the folks at IEEFA for creating the policy in order to model it!
Our main paper
It’s all engines go as the LMSU pit crew review the updated National Hydrogen Strategy, But before we get too H2 Fast H2 Furious, we jump in the DeLorean with Alison as she recounts the backstory on the original 2019 Hydrogen Strategy. So how does the 2024 model compare? Less hype, no tripe, some pipe! Clear-eyed and bullish about the role of green hydrogen in hard to abate sectors and key export opportunities, this hydrogen strategy is a shift to getting hy on our own supply!
Bonus: our third episode ever covering IRENA’s report on hydrogen carriers is the fine wine to accompany this main course.
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: the passage of legislation in Tennessee to ban solar geoengineering - by Republicans, because, chemtrails!
Alison’s One More Thing is: the end of coal power in the UK! With the closing of the last coal power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, it’s a symbolic shift as the country that first introduced coal-fired power in the industrial revolution continues its decarbonisation journey..
Frankie’s One More Thing is: the Australian Government hosting a Global Nature Positive Summit on Gadigal country in Sydney on 8-10 October against the backdrop of not much progress on nature positive reforms!
Luke’s One More Thing is: to remind you there are spare tickets up for grabs for Super Summerupperers tocome join us at Currently Speaking's trivia night in Melbourne on Wednesday, 23 October! We have three spare tickets for the LMSU trivia team, and maybe they have your name on them! Just head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, make sure you are a paying subscriber, and answer this question: in 25 words or less, tell us what novel strategy Tennant should employ to get the Carbon Leakage Review second report released. The three most creative, least illegal answers get a ticket!
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Come join us at Currently Speaking's trivia night! Our friends at the Currently Speaking newsletter are putting on a trivia night in Melbourne on Wednesday, 23 October (on the evening of the first day of the All Energy Australia exhibition and conference). So you should get onto that, obviously. But if you are a Super Summerupperer (or ready to sign up) we have three spare tickets for the LMSU trivia team, and maybe they have your name on them! Just head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, make sure you are a paying subscriber, and answer this question: in 25 words or less, tell us what novel strategy Tennant should employ to get the Carbon Leakage Review second report released. The three most creative, least illegal answers get a ticket!
—
Luke and Frankie try to distract Tennant from his increasing desperation and dismay at the lack of CBAM content on the local menu, but happily your intrepid hosts have pathways-a-plenty to snack on with the Climate Change Authority publishing their final Sector Pathways Review! Feeding into the government’s work on the six sectoral decarbonisation plans, there is bottom-up and economy-wide modelling to consume. The TL;DR? A decent serve of residual emissions to net off, and engineered removals? We’ll need a fewwwwww!
And if you’re after more of a main course on CCA sector pathways, we recommend this fresh episode of First Fuel with Brad Archer: chef’s kiss
Our main paper
This week the LMSU crew sample some fine dining that Gill Armstrong, Joshua Danahay and Mia Dewar at Climateworks Centre have served up: a delightful degustation of home energy upgrades in their latest report, Enabling Australia’s home renovation wave. With three upgrade options across eight jurisdictions and sixty nine climate zones, your intrepid hosts had more than their fill of insulation packed options to improve Australia’s crappy old housing stock! A special hat tip to the team for their infographic game – it remains strong – and the interactive charts on the Climateworks website are especially worthy of your attention!
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: the new and improved National Hydrogen Strategy v2. Should National Hydrogen Strategy v1 impresario Alison Reeve come back on the podcast and critique v2? Well should she? You, chicken, Reeve? PLUS a shout out and congratulations to friends of the pod, Erwin Jackson and Georgina Wood on their recent nuptials!
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a shout out for the just launched campaign “Renew Australia For All” which has some sharp asks for upgrades to Australian homes AND pod rec for The Rest Is Politics US with Katty Kay and Anthony Scaramucci.
Luke’s One More Thing is: NSW has a new Consumer Energy Strategy! And residential mandatory disclosure is a thing! For realsies this time!
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up today for access to coveted BoCo like our recent bonus episodes on US election shenanigans and closer to home, the passing of legislation for the Net Zero Economy Agency and Climate-related Financial Disclosures. You will also find things you didn’t know you wanted (weekly photos of Frankie’s uber cute doggo, Tennant’s cats, cyber punk cosplay outfits and a general #GoodTime). Don’t be shy! Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
Your intrepid hosts open with some ill considered commitments on BoCo that will(?) be made available on the Patreon (who doesn’t love a cyberpunk-doggo mash up), barely mention the actual bonus episode we released last week (see above) before wading into the inviting waters of AEMO’s latest Electricity Statement of Opportunities. So what does 2024 ESOO have to say for itself? Everything is now terrific, reliability wise! OR IS IT??!!
This year’s ESOO leads with the good news picture but warning we still need to read carefully and while some big projects have been approved (oh hi HumeLink!), we should be feeling the urgency of Getting Stuff Done. And that stuff MUST include energy performance retrofits of millions of Australian homes! Shout out Climateworks on their latest report, Enabling Australia’s home renovation wave, which has some great suggestions on that front.
Our main paper
Your intrepid hosts break down being down on emissions breaks with the hot new Science paper causing all the commotion in climate circles. Climate policies that achieved major emission reductions: Global evidence from two decades from Annika Stechemesser and collaborators, mainly from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, has more hot takes and fake takes than you can poke a stick at! Listen on to hear ours - flaws we did find, it’s not all bad though - but also don’t just trust us! We reference some fantastic analysis of the paper from Emil Dimanchev which is well worth your time. Also, if Euler diagrams are your jam then this paper is for YOU.
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: the decision by Korea’s highest court to require the legislature to put forward 2030-50 interim climate targets PLUS a Brian Deese article in Foreign Affairs calling for a clean energy Marshall Plan.
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a note on some worrying signs of breaks to commitments towards net zero housing and future changes to the National Construction Code after the SA government pressed pause on further changes for the next ten years.
Luke’s One More Thing is: This article from Currently Speaking (and the associated impromptu reading list).
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Episode Notes
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up today for access to coveted BoCo like our recent bonus episode on brat summer and US election implications for climate, as well as other savoury morsels like our notes on papers read, alternate paper titles and so so many custom memes. Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
After recent frolics in pre-and-post election climate speculation in the US and UK, your intrepid hosts turn their gaze to developments closer to home and ponder, could China be peaking its emissions early? We discuss this excellent article in Carbon Brief with data from respected China-watcher Lauri Myllyvirta. The short of it? It’s a complicated stew with a GIGANTIC cup of renewable energy growth, a generous dollop of post-COVID energy demand and a worrying scoop of coal-to-chemicals growth.
Our main paper
Your intrepid hosts cross examine a bumper new report Global trends in climate litigation: 2024 snapshot from Joana Setzer and Catherine Higham from the London School of Economics' Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. This was a fascinating read on the many and varied approaches not-for-profits, governments and corporates are taking to litigating climate action, climate inaction and climate washing! Warning: contains SLAPP fights and green-on-green action.
One more things
Luke opens with some feedback from friend of the pod David McEwen. David thought we missed a trick around Frankie’s suggestion that it would take a while to replace budget revenue from fossil fuels and helpfully provided a link to an excellent paper from Paul J. Burke at the ANU Tax and Transfer Policy Institute which points out that our fossil fuel industry delivers <3% of combined state/territory and federal revenue. It shows the largest dependencies are coal royalties in QLD (Tennant has seen the ads to prove it!) and the federal fuel excise. Fair cop, we say, but even 3% would take some work to replace! Thanks for the support.
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a shout out for the FixIt Chicks, Jenny Edwards (notable energy efficiency expert and retrofit queen) and Lish Fejer (ABC journo and fabulous climate communicator) who’ve grown a cult following on their excellent insta full of handy reels on energy saving tips and tricks for the home. Love your work!
Tennant’s One More Thing is: a bold claim that the government’s nature positive reforms - even though they’ve been split into different stages with the truly difficult EPBC Act reform put off until after election - appear to be going nowhere fast! Stakeholders on all sides are not happy and things aren’t looking too good ahead of Australia hosting an international biodiversity summit.
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up today for access to coveted BoCo like our recent bonus episode on brat summer and US election implications for climate, as well as other savoury morsels like our notes on papers read, alternate paper titles and so so many custom memes. Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
After shamelessly spruiking our latest subscriber-only bonus content – LMSU speculation on the US election and its implications for mitigation – we pop across the pond to pick over the scraps of the recent UK election. Did the Tories’ flirtation with an anti-green agenda cost them or was the prospect of warm homes and nationalising energy with GB Energy too tantalising to turn down? Maybe it was just time for the Tories to go!
Our main paper
Having foreshadowed our curiosity about the current Quarterly Essay on our last pod, your intrepid hosts came for the excellent climate science but might have left before the policy diagnosis in Joëlle Gergis’ HIghway to Hell: Climate Change and Australia’s Future. It turns out that straying from your lane can be fraught and plagued with pesky potholes like politics and diplomacy, which are, like, totally simple and not at all riddled with their own peculiar complexities. Alas, they tried to make Japan go to rehab and Australia said “no, no, no.”
One more things
Luke’s One More Thing is: Listener feedback! The folks from RE-Alliance took issue with a hypothesis floated on our last pod that folks from the regions may feel a sense of pride in the nation-building hosting of renewable energy infra. That’s a big fat NO according to research done by the RE-Alliance crew. Well then.
Tennant’s One More Thing is: HumeLink has been approved (economically, by the AER). Next: EPBC and NSW planning!
Frankie’s One More Thing is: A shout out to now-former Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Jenny McAllister, who was promoted in the recent reshuffle. From her work leading on early adaptation plans, energy performance and securing a billion-dollar fund for home energy upgrades, the LMSU crew salute you, and congrats on the new gig!
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up today for access to coveted BoCo like bonus episodes and other savoury morsels like our notes on papers read, alternate paper titles and so so many custom memes. Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
This week your intrepid hosts feast on the veritable smorgasbord of actions and progress contained in the communique out of climate and energy ministers’ most recent gathering! The acronym soup - CER, FMIA, MEPS, GEMS, Oh MY! - might have been a touch too much for most, the LMSU crew dined with delight. Yes please for home energy ratings! Yummo on MEPS for hot water heat pumps! Please Sir, I Want Some More regulation of crappy LEDs!
Our main paper
Andrew Dyer unpacked the dire state of community engagement in his review, which was the main course for this week’s pod and was yet another item that received a formal response from climate and energy ministers last week.
Tennant was sick in bed this week so naturally he penned an ode to the Dyer Review set to the tune of Girl from Ipanema. It may turn up on the Patreon one day but suffice to say that ♪ short and sharp and smart and concrete, the recs from Andrew Dyer are all agreed ♪
Including but definitely not limited to the idea of an energy spokesperson/hype machine (probably not zombie John Monash but someone like that) to explain why all this infrastructure is necessary! Is Matt Kean that the man for the job?! Maybe not as crazy as it sounds!!! Luke spoke to Matt about his aspirations in the new gig. You know, on his other podcast 🙄
One more things
Luke’s One More Thing is listener feedback on our discussion of the Global Tipping Points paper from Summerupperer Chris Nunn, who nominated the paper.
Tennant’s One More Thing is a collaborative trip to Hades (no, not to find the Carbon Leakage Review); and a personal electrification saga.
Frankie’s One More Thing is the Building Ministers Meeting decision to include a voluntary pathway for commercial buildings to measure and report embodied carbon using the newly launched NABERS rating in the National Construction Code 2025.
The LMSU crew also flagged an exciting opportunity for YOU dear Summerupperers to read along as we digest a recent Quarterly Essay, Highway to Hell: Climate Change and Australia's Future which we will cover in an upcoming episode!
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up today for access to coveted BoCo like bonus episodes and other savoury morsels like our notes on papers read, alternate paper titles and so so many custom memes. Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
This week your intrepid hosts are joined by a very special guest. He is a writer, a comedian, a broadcaster, a wager of Wars on Waste and a general in the Fight for Planet A, Craig Reucassel!
And the reinforcements are warranted as we launch into an extended opening segment focused on AEMO's 2024 Integrated System Plan. This discussion ranged across delights such as the big Consumer Energy Resources rebrand (and what’s changed other than the name), why gas peaking capacity is like insurance (Tennant tells all) and the zero carbon tech we can turn to to deal with dunkelflaute in the long term (probably not batteries, and definitely not nuclear)!
Our main paper
We also reached a tipping point on the concept of tipping points dear Summerupperers and took one for the collective team by diving into the latest offering from the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute, the 2023 Global Tipping Points report. We had a look at the summary report (lots of things to worry about in there) and then did a deep dive on section four, Positive tipping points in technology, economy and society. TL;DR: ‘tipping points’ may be a tad overused as a concept here but perhaps there are one or two areas in which we can leverage learning rates and catalyse some social contagion to replicate the success experienced by solar and wind.
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is an anecdote regarding a query he put to Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen at a recent forum at Parliament House. Politicians are known to duck questions from time to time, but at least the Minister's podcast themed parry gets points for novelty.
Craig’s One More Thing is his keen interest in ensuring costings for prospective nuclear plants factor in the expense of the continued use of aging, emissions intensive coal fired power stations while we wait for nuclear to come online. The man has a point!
Frankie’s One More Thing is a plug for friend of the pod, Tim Forcey, who’s just published a book! My Efficient Electric Home Handbook is a practical guide on how to make your home more comfortable, efficient, fossil fuel free and cheaper to run. Tim is also one of the founders of popular Facebook group My Efficient Electric Home. Go check it out!
Luke’s One More Thing is the proposal from the Victorian Government on minimum rental standards for eminently sensible things like draught proofing and insulation. Plus his chat about the new standards with Victorian Energy and Climate Minister Lily D'Ambrosio on his other podcast , First Fuel 🙄.
AND he got in a sneaky twofer (or is that a threefor?) but we forgave him because his third more thing was a plug for Tennant’s recent (and excellent) speech “The Sun is a harsh mistress: taking Australian energy advantage seriously”.
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up today for access to coveted BoCo like bonus episodes, including our answers to more of the AMA questions we couldn’t get to this week and other savoury morsels like our notes on papers read, alternate paper titles and so so many custom memes. Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
Luke and Frankie are missing Tennant this week but are blessed by the presence of stunt double CBAM enthusiast Carlos Flores, Director of the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) program!
We are summing up the latest developments in climate and energy in commercial buildings with special live show at the end of a very big day at the NABERS and Commercial Building Disclosure (CBD) Program Conference. While Frankie and Carlos battled it out for the best one minute elevator pitch on what NABERS is for y’all who aren’t buildings wonks, the TL;DR of it all is that EVERYBODY needs good NABERS!
The NABERS program is celebrating 25 years in operation and its status as an example of global leadership in energy efficiency policy. That 25 years amounts to 11.57 MILLION tonnes CO2 abatement and $1.7 BILLION in energy bill savings for the building owners that have used NABERS ratings to understand and manage their energy use, saving big $$ and slashing emissions.
So what’s on the agenda for the next 25 years? The future is ALL ELECTRIC so electrification is all the rage. Embodied carbon is the next big frontier with the launch of the pilot Embodied Carbon rating tool, ambitious new minimum energy efficiency standards for commercial buildings are out for consultation in the National Construction Code 2025 AND Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Jenny McAllister, announced a review to reimagine and expand the CBD Program. Phew! #justabiton.
A Very Happy 25th Birthday to NABERS from the LMSU crew, here’s to the next 25 years of global leadership in sustainable buildings policy!
Oh, and One More Thing™️ – if you want to watch the video (gasp!) of the live show it is up on the NABERS channel on Youtube!
And that’s all for this week folks! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up today for access to coveted BoCo like bonus episodes, including our answers to more of the AMA questions we couldn’t get to this week and other savoury morsels like our notes on papers read, alternate paper titles and so so many custom memes. Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
Your intrepid hosts are delighted to present this break-with-the-usual-format spectacular to mark an important milestone: FIFTY EPISODES of the Let Me Sum Up podcast!
That’s a whole lotta summing up over the past two years, but even when we’re considering our life choices on a Sunday choosing to pore through papers - so many papers! - it’s been a blast and we want to say a massive thanks to all you Summerupperers for tuning in and supporting us along the way.
We asked you to Ask Us Anything and boy did you! Listen on to hear our responses to the many thoughtful questions and provocations from friends of the pod, which ranged from how we choose what papers to read, to career reflections, to what our very own Horsemen and Superheroes of the transition are. It’s all there for your listening pleasure, including the voices of so many Summerupperers who were good enough to record their questions so you could hear them directly.
Here’s to the next fifty episodes Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Thats right, our very next episode is our fiftieth (how did that happen) so to mark the occasion we are doing an Ask Me Anything! Luke's fashion choices, trolling Frankie about hydrogen in buildings, getting Tennant's attention with questions posed in the form of memes – it is all on the table.
But time is of the essence! Get your question into mailbag@letmesumup.net by Sunday 9 June 2024. And remember you get extra points if you submit your question as a voice recording (and the chance for it to be spliced into the episode and LMSU history). Huzzah!
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up today for access to coveted BoCo like bonus episodes and other savoury morsels like our notes on papers read, alternate paper titles and so so many custom memes. Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
Another fortnight, another flurry of activity vis-a-vis the reliability of the NEM! Your intrepid hosts have some whiplash from the just-published May 2024 Update to the 2023 Electricity Statement of Opportunities, rendered out of date some 48 hours later when the NSW Government and Origin Energy announced their deal to extend the operation of Eraring for two years. Reliability fears? Temporarily allayed. Broader impacts? More coal gen pain!
Our main paper
The Australian Government’s universally beloved, well received, totally uncontroversial Future Gas Strategy proved too tempting to resist for your intrepid hosts. In what could have been titled ‘Gassy McGasface Says: Gas? Gas!’ this report goes to great lengths to paint a picture of gas as far as the eye can see – beyond 2050! – even in the face of the many models suggesting that would be a Very Bad Idea, especially if the need to save the climate is a thing. It might be light on analysis, policy, and funding, but don’t worry, we filled in the blanks.
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is some listener mailbag from Summerupperer Kerry Burke, who reckons the LMSU crew got it wrong – it had to happen eventually – with our broad endorsement of Grattan’s Keeping the Lights On paper last episode. We’ll take a 47/48 strike rate any day, and invite Kerry – who is also not happy with the status quo – to tell us what he’d do instead!
Frankie’s One More Thing is a plug for the National Construction Code 2025 Public Comment Draft, now open for comment until 1 July! Improvements to energy efficiency for commercial buildings are on the table, including an intriguing measure to mandate solar on commercial building rooftops. If buildings are your jam, hop on it!
Luke’s One More Thing is a plug for the Energy Efficiency Council’s revamped and relaunched First Fuel podcast, featuring no less than the grandfather of energy efficiency, founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute and Stanford Professor, Amory Lovins. Canvassing extreme efficiency, grid transition and dare we say it, the prospects for nuclear in Australia, we are McLovins it!
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up today for access to coveted BoCo like our just-dropped bonus episode on the Federal Budget! Other savoury morsels include our notes on papers read, alternate paper titles and so so many custom memes. Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
Your intrepid hosts turn their gaze stateside for a gander at the recently published rules from the US EPA which will slash emissions and other pollutants from coal and gas generators. We reckon these are a BIG DEAL. With coal generators needing to cut emissions by 90% if they plan on operating post 2039, it’s effectively CCS or die!
Our main paper
The Grattan Institute’s latest offering, Keeping the Lights On, makes for a grumpy read in which no government, market body or stakeholder group escapes the ire of authors Tony Wood, Alison Reeve and Richard Yan over the state of the energy transition. This report is serving a healthy dose of realism (the coal closure era is just gonna be messy, deal with it) and a side of optimism on reforms for the post coal era! And the LMSU crew, as always, are here for it.
One more things
Luke’s One More Thing is unpacking some thoughtful listener mail from friend of the pod and Super Summerupperer Dylan McConnell on the history and context of the GSOO. This valiant effort did move your intrepid hosts however – we still reckon the GSOO is in need of a serious makeover!
Frankie’s One More Thing is the recently published Decarbonising the US Economy by 2050: A National Blueprint for the Buildings Sector following a chat with the paper’s authors from US Department of Energy and Department of Housing and Urban Development. TLDR: reform across the federation is so much harder when you have 50 states. Good thing the HURRICANE of IRA carrots is there. Mmmm, carrots.
Tennant’s One More Thing is a recent collab between two humongous titans whose subject could doom the world - or save it. No, it’s not the highly anticipated King Kong x Godzilla cinematic spectacle, but rather a recent episode of Volts where David Roberts is joined by Michael Liebreich to talk energy transition superheroes vs supervillians.
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up for access to coveted BoCo like bonus episodes, our notes on papers read, custom memes and climate mash ups of 70s soul hits! Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
If there’s one thing your intrepid hosts love it’s an acronym! PM Anthony Albanese served up fresh fodder for the LMSU crew in the form of A Future Made In Australia or as it shall henceforth be known, FuMiA! At this stage all we have are the tasty tantalising morsels of pre-budget delights in the billion dollar investments announced for the Solar Sunshot program and critical minerals investments with much MUCH more coming our way. Will the Government go big or go home in backing home-grown advantages and sovereign capability?
Our main paper
This week we picked a winner and tackled the ARENA-funded study by the Australian PV Institute, Silicon to Solar, which informed the so-far $1Bn the government is tipping in to the Solar Sunshot program aimed at creating an end-to-end solar PV industry in Australia.
A dispassionate, objective look at whether we should establish a domestic solar industry THIS IS NOT! Your intrepid hosts tallied the arguments for ‘making PV in Australia is sensible’ vs ‘making PV in Australia is crazy’ and tackled the totally-not-fraught topic of what-do-we-do-about-China. Which one stacks up? Definitely not our current costs of production at any stage of the supply chain!
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is “Everything Must Go”, a history of stories about the end of the world (featuring an excellent climate section) by Dorian Lynskey, host of the Origin Story podcast. Tennant’s real motivation for the shout out is that it situates Soylent Green as a climate movie. Cue not listening emojis. For a taster, listen to the Origin Story podcast's bonus episode on the book!
Frankie’s One More Thing is the ISSB’s recent announcement that they are commencing projects to look at disclosure about risks and opportunities associated with nature and human capital. Signalling expansion to human rights and TNFD is super fast compared to climate risk which was a slower burn - exciting times!
Luke’s One More Thing is the EEC’s Industrial Decarbonisation Summit and National Conference, featuring global energy efficiency legend Amory Lovins. Not to mention a gala dinner co-hosted by podcast superstars Frankie Muskovic and Tennant Reed!
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up for access to covetous BoCo like bonus episodes, our notes on papers read, custom memes and climate mash ups of 70s soul hits! Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
The demand side of the energy system equation is near and dear to the hearts of your your intrepid hosts and so it was with a collective sigh that we mused on the government’s just released National Energy Performance Strategy (NEPS). Built on the bones of the National Strategy on Energy Efficiency (2009) and the National Energy Productivity Plan (2015), this latest iteration is serving up a lot of framework and not a lot of new policy commitments. Is it NUP to the NEPS? Your intrepid hosts reckon there’s not a moment to lose on increasing the ambition and building out this framework post haste!
Our main paper
And speaking of ambition! All the targets were hanging out over here as we set our sights on 2035 and had a gander at the Climate Change Authority’s just published 2024 Issues Paper: Targets, Pathways and Progress. So what is the Goldilocks number, CCA? This target is too high (over 75%)! This target is too low (under 65%)! But THESE TARGETS (65-75%) are just right. Add a sneak peak into the early thinking on tech needed in different sectoral pathways, a first foray into carbon removals - yet more targets! - AND the promise of economic modelling which will no doubt feature more IAM piñata bashing, and CCA has sung for their supper for Summerupperers to sup!
One more things
Luke’s One More Thing is some listener mail on our recent ep unpacking the National Adaptation Plan issues paper from none other than friend of the pod, CCA CEO Brad Archer! Brad responded to Luke’s cheeky suggestion that the CCA could play a stronger role on adaptation policy - turns out they ARE doing some stuff and they also have plenty to be getting on with already thank-you-very-much!
Tennant’s One More Thing is a recent European Commission report on the gap between real-world light vehicle emissions and the current Worldwide harmonised Light vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP). They used data collected by new vehicles themselves while being driven!
Frankie’s One More Thing is a tribute to Jeff Robinson, sustainable building advocate and industry legend, who passed away tragically on April 7. Jeff was larger than life and seemingly everywhere all at once, always generous with his time to support the sustainable buildings movement as a mentor and friend to many. A memorial forest is being planted in his honour and a message board for those who would like to contribute. Vale, Jeff.
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up for access to covetous BoCo like bonus episodes, our notes on papers read, custom memes and climate mash ups of 70s soul hits! Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
Your intrepid hosts still have the Need for Speed(y decarbonisation of vehicles) and clocked the New (and improved?) Vehicle Efficiency Standard completed its warm up lap and with industry all signed up now and cheering from the sidelines, it’s go time and we’ll soon find out if the Parliament believes two electric popemobiles will balance out a stretch hummer after all! We revisit our previous episode on the NVES and discuss the changes. Was the original B and ambit claim? Were 4WDs always going to end up switching categories? That may be but we reckon this is still more of a vroom vroom than a putt putt and it will drive a lot of change in new fleets by 2030!
Our main paper
This week we enter the twilight zone that is the Gas Statement of Opportunties 2024, more affectionately known by regular customers as the GSOO. In this 2024 edition where new supplies of gas are the ONLY solutions contemplated to forecast shortages towards the end of the decade, your intrepid hosts had some cough thoughts about the role of cough demand side policy maybe being a thing and also it would be nice if any of the scenarios used were actually aligned to meeting our climate commitments. HOOEEEE we had fun beating this pinata full of charts and magic gas ships!
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is a new paper from our old friend William Nordhaus, updating the widely beloved DICE Integrated Assessment Model with less wildly erroneous inputs and incrementally more functional representations of the world!
Frankie’s One More Thing is a reflection on the climate legislation PALOOZA going on in Parliament with three bills introduced for vehicle efficiency standards, Climate Related Financial Disclosures and setting up the Net Zero Economy Authority. And wouldn’t you all like to know what we thought of that! Look no further than our Patreon where we’ve just dropped a BoCo episode on just that!
Luke’s One More Thing is a big salute to colleague and friend of the pod, Holly Taylor, the Energy Efficiency Council’s outgoing Head of Partnerships and Strategy. Oft described as energy efficiency’s Hype Woman, Holly’s impact and infectious enthusiasm will be much missed! If YOU dear Summerupperer are contemplating a career shift and fancy a purpose-driven stint as the EEC’s new Head of Partnerships, have a look here for all the deets to apply!
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net
.
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up for access to covetous BoCo like bonus episodes, our notes on papers read, custom memes and climate mash ups of 70s soul hits! Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
It's time to revive US elections corner at LMSU HQ and HOOOEEEEE there is a lot to say! Summerupperers, we could have spent the whole pod unpacking the various permutations of the makeup of Congress and its implications for climate policy. BUT, beyond Democracy Good, Demagogue Bad, a re-elected but weakened Biden may be relegated to Executive Actions and bedding down IRA and getting proposed EPA standards for cars, powerplants and oil and gas methane reduction up. Will it be enough? The spectre of a Trump 2.0 presidency would see the US withdraw from Paris again and completely remove climate considerations from all decision making to the extent possible. The wildly popular hurricane of carrots that is IRA may yet survive though.
Our main paper
Last week the Government released two papers relating to adaptation - the National Climate Risk Assessment : First Pass Assessment Report and the National Adaptation Plan Issues Paper. Your intrepid hosts are here for this culinary climate cabaret! We devoured the National Adaptation Plan Issues Paper, with a little First Pass Climate Risk Assessment amuse bouche!
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is “Indistinguishable From Magic” by Robert L Forward, a collection of mind-expanding essays and indescribably dreadful fiction on the frontiers of future science and engineering by an influential aeronautical engineer and physicist. Featuring incredible levels of energy inefficiency!
Frankie’s One More Thing is a great episode of David Roberts’ US climate pod of note ‘Volts’ called “How’s IRA doing?”. It’s a cracking discussion with Trevor Houser of Rhodium Group unpacking data on how successful the IRA has been, two years into implementation.
Luke’s One More Thing is to flag ongoing and significant work underway by Treasury and the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute on a regulatory regime for Climate Related Financial Disclosures - due to kick off this year! - and accompanying taxonomy for sustainable finance.
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up for access to covetous BoCo like bonus episodes, our notes on papers read, custom memes and climate mash ups of 70s soul hits! Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
—
We get the ball rolling with some crystal ball gazing this week. Speculation is rife on just how ambitious Australia’s 2035 national emissions target will be and your intrepid hosts are far from immune to a spot of prognostication themselves! When and where will it land we ask? Ambitious states like Vic and QLD (!) suggest 75-80% ambition is supportable, and looking abroad with the EU potentially gunning for a 90% reduction on 1990 levels, A Big Number is very possible!
Our main paper
A Degrowther’s delight and a downright doozy which decries growth, marketing and pronatalism as the drivers of ecological overshoot in this week’s paper, World Scientists’ Warning: The behavioural crisis driving ecological overshoot by Joseph Merz, Phoebe Barnard, William Rees, Dane Smith, Mat Maroni, Christopher Rhodes, Julia Dederer, Nandita Bajaj, Michael Joy, Thomas Wiedmann, Rory Sutherland. Your intrepid hosts had much to say, and PLENTY to critique as the authors target runaway economic growth, marketers for manipulating the Easily Led Masses, neo-liberal feminists and Big Baby as the source of our woes. The solutions? Well, transitioning our energy system is a futile struggle. What we really need is a campaign of Widespread Behaviour Manipulation by… the marketing industry. STRAP IN FOLKS, this one is a wild ride.
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is the provocative but sadly brief (and possibly bananas) “Food Without Agriculture”
Frankie’s One More Thing is the just-announced changes to the Federal Coalition’s shadow ministry, with Melissa McIntosh MP appointed to the new role of Shadow Minister for Energy Affordability.
Luke’s One More Thing is to pour one out for Katharine Murphy no longer being a (direct) contributor to our nation’s public debate. If you too are feeling nostalgic, head on back to Episode 7 ‘The last fire in the forest’ where Katharine joined us to talk about the Safeguard Mechanism and climate policy ghosts past, present and future!
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net
.
Support us on Patreon...Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our just-launched Patreon! Our hope is to make this passion project of ours a tad more sustainable. You can sign up here: https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.
Your intrepid hosts have charged into 2024 and are serving you the hottest takes on the spiciest topics. It’s good to be back!
We kick things off by recapping Big Thinkers Ross Garnaut and Rod Sims’ appearance at the National Press Club on 14 February where the duo presented some big think ideas on how Australia could acquire energy Superpower status. A Carbon Solutions Levy proposed on the carbon content of all fossil fuels produced in or imported to Australia would fund the Capacity Investment Scheme, building of new transmission and hydrogen pipelines and support early development in Superpower industries like processing iron, aluminium and other critical minerals for export. Is this a Deadpool/Wolverine bromance destined for critical success? Only time may tell!
Our main paper
The Australian Government’s hotly anticipated Cleaner, Cheaper to Run Cars: The Australian New Vehicle Efficiency Standard is out for consultation (you’ve got until March 4 people) and the scrutiny of your intrepid hosts. We have been talking about vehicle efficiency standards for donkeys’ years and the Government is keen to no longer be in a club with Russia as one of two advanced economies left without them. An ambitious timeline to see us converge with proposed (OR ARE THEY) US standards by 2028 would push a big uptick of EVs in new vehicle fleets but will it all be down to our ability to COMPLETE A GOVERNMENT IT PROJECT in time?
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is ex-Bloomberg New Energy Finance charts maven Nat Bullard has published his latest annual chart-a-thon on decarbonisation progress. It is a nerdy datafeast with loads that is positive, some provocative, and a sprinkling of grimness.
Frankie’s One More Thing is the US EPA’s introduction of a Waste Emissions Charge for methane on oil and gas facilities that exceed specified thresholds. Combined with rule changes announced at COP28 as part of their Methane Emissions Reduction Program, provides a roadmap other signatories to the Global Methane Pledge could be getting on with!
Luke’s One More Thing is riff on one of Garnaut's reflections in the Q&A following his press club address; governments of the past have taken on the task of making (and winning) the argument for doing Hard Things in the National Interest. It worked in the 1980s for microeconomic reform, can it work in the 2020s for climate policy?
And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at mailbag@letmesumup.net and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.
Calling all Summerupperers! We’ve plunged into the partay pool of Patreon to make this passion project of ours a tad more sustainable. You can sign up to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp
We launched Let Me Sum Up back in 2022 because we had a feeling we weren’t the only ones struggling to keep up with all the latest climate and energy papers and global goings on. We have loved every second of it and meeting many of you, our amazing listeners, who love the pod and have encouraged us to keep going.
Your intrepid hosts also have busy day jobs and are also trying to do life with young families while we continue to devote time to reading and chatting about papers for y’all.
We’re launching the Patreon to make the task of doing the pod more sustainable for us - and particularly Luke who has been editing the pod in his spare time since we started. Our initial hope is to get enough subscribers to cover the cost of hiring an editor. Oh No! Our plan for WORLD DOMINATION has been revealed!
For those of you lovely folk who can afford to, signing up to be a Super Summerupperer will cost you AUD10/month and you’ll unlock access to exclusive subscriber-only episodes of the pod, copies of our copious notes on papers read, a chance to vote on what we should read and more coveted BoCo informed by you, our amazing listener community. Right this instant, over on Patreon, there is a bonus episode on the Victorian Gas Substitution Roadmap 2.0 for the listening pleasure of our Patreon supporters. You can sign up here: https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp
And NEVER FEAR! A standard, spectacular and entirely free episode of LMSU will be hitting your feed this Friday.
Thanks for your support,
Frankie, Luke and Tennant
By popular demand we are joined once more by marvelous guest host Alison Reeve to round out 2023 with our BUMPER HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR SPECTACULAR! That’s right Summerupperers, ‘tis the season for the Highly Anticipated and Much Sought After awarding of the second annual Wonkies! This year there were several contenders for top honours but your intrepid hosts have sent up the smoke signal and unanimously declared our favourite climate paper of 2023 was…DRUMROLL…
Getting off gas: why, how and who should pay? By Tony Wood, Alison Reeve and Esther Suckling of the Grattan Institute! This paper was covered in Episode 28 of the pod and your hosts noted the timeliness and influence the report has had since its release in June 2023 on the thorny issue of getting 5 million Australian households off fossil gas. Honourable mentions for our runners up go to “Rethinking markets, regulation and governance for the energy transition” by Dr Ron Ben-David (Episode 32), the Climate Change Authority’s “Reduce, remove and store: The role of carbon sequestration in accelerating Australia’s decarbonisation” (Episode 33) and Discounting the Distant Future: A Critique of the EPA’s Analysis of the Social Cost of Carbon’, by Geoffrey M. Heal, Noah Kaufman and Antony Millner at Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy (Episode 27).
Our climate-themed christmas cracker of a caper for you Summerupperers is the controversial and critically acclaimed How to Blow Up a Pipeline! An Ocean’s 11-esque heist movie in which the caper crew are a rainbow coalition of diverse young environmental activists, and the Big Score is to disable a crucial oil pipeline and strike a blow for the climate. Will they do it? Will they get away with it? And is that even the plan???
You can watch it on Stan in Australia and also have a listen to this interview with the film’s director and co-writer on The Big Picture podcast.
Frankie’s One More Thing is Alan Kohler’s quarterly essay The Great Divide: Australia’s Housing Mess and How to Fix It and admission of trash TV consumption: Yellowstone (apparently the stepping stone to true trashiness) + The Block.
Tennant’s One More Things are Netflix trash show about upgrading trash (and not so trash) cars “Car Masters; Rust To Riches”, and non-trashy pop-sci book “A City On Mars” by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith.
Alison’s One More Things are the quirky Aussie heist movie, Malcolm: the only movie you’ll ever see featuring a Melbourne tram as getaway vehicle, and Long Live Chainsaw a brilliant doco about the very short life and career of Canadian downhill mountain bike racer, Stevie Smith.
Luke’s One More Things are the excellent, unabridged Tolkien audiobooks narrated by Andy Serkis: The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King and The Silmarillion. Or if that’s all a bit 1950s high fantasy for you, try the Murderbot Diaires!
And that’s all from us in 2023! We are taking a break in January but will be back with ever more reports to read in Feb 2024. In the meantime, happy holidays to all our wonderful Summerupperers. While you rest up, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers and climate-themed pop culture to mailbag@letmesumup.net, xeet ‘em at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic, or blu ‘em at @lukemenzel.bsky.social @tennantreed.bsky.social and @frankiemuskovic.bsky.social
Continents apart and featuring LBM (Little Baby Muskovic) once more, your intrepid hosts dive into the eventful last few days of COP28 and swim around in the acronym soupy delight that is the first GST (Global Stocktake, not the pesky 10% tax). Fossil fuels? A transition away! Renewable energy? Triple ‘em! Energy efficiency? Double it! 1.5C? Is our North Star! Next round of NDCs? Parties better bring ‘em and make ‘em good! There is much to sum up here and we wanted to bring you Summeruperers the hottest of hot takes and so voila! Fresh out of the oven and off the plane from our journey home.
Listen to our last episode where we summed up the first half of COP28, joined by special guest and climate reporter of note Dr Simon Evans from Carbon Brief. For bonus nerdery, read some of Tennant’s extensive notes on the majlis and watch walk n’ talk videos of us digesting the goings on as we stroll the COP venue at Dubai Expo City. And for dare we say it, even more backstory, jump in the delorean and listen to last year’s episode recorded at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh.
This is our final substantive episode of 2023, but stay tuned for our holiday special, which will feature our second annual award for the best climate and energy paper, the Wonkies!
Send your hot tips and suggestions for paper, climate themed movies and COP questions to mailbag@letmesumup.net, xeet ‘em at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic, or blu ‘em at @lukemenzel.bsky.social @tennantreed.bsky.social and @frankiemuskovic.bsky.social
With the help of special guest and climate reporter of note Dr Simon Evans from Carbon Brief, your intrepid hosts sum up all the hot button issues from the first week of COP28. Global Stocktake! Tripling up on renewables! Doubling down on energy efficiency! Phase-down of fossil fuels! Phase-out of fossil fuels! Abated or Unabated! We cover it all, as well the vibe on the ground and around the pavilions, Team Australia’s presence at this COP (coffee diplomacy soldiers on) and wild speculation on the location of the next three (!) COPs.
Listen to our last episode where we preview key issues on the agenda at COP28, and for even more context, jump in the delorean and listen to last year’s episode recorded at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh.
You can find Dr Simon Evans on the site formerly known as Twitter and you can read Carbon Brief’s excellent article on why defining the ‘phaseout’ of ‘unabated’ fossil fuels at COP28 is so important.
Tennant’s note about a bad LSE paper on the impacts of EU CBAM on Africa is here.
And if you Summerupperers can’t get enough COP chat, check out our video updates as we roamed the grounds at COP during the first week here and here.
Send your hot tips and suggestions for paper, climate themed movies and COP questions to mailbag@letmesumup.net, xeet ‘em at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic, or blu ‘em at @lukemenzel.bsky.social @tennantreed.bsky.social and @frankiemuskovic.bsky.social.
Frankie is back from pod mat leave and Tennant is spruiking recipes from Dungeons & Dragons Heroes’ Feast Cookbooks! (Vol 1 and Vol 2). Pleasantries aside we dive in with our own stocktake of the first Global Stocktake on progress of the Paris Agreement towards achieving its purpose and long-term goals. Due to be discussed in Dubai at COP28 shortly, it’s an important if unsurprising summary of where we’re at: Paris has driven a lot of activity but we are not on track for 1.5C.
And stay tuned for more COP news Sumerupperers as your intrepid hosts are departing for Dubai and will be dissecting all the deliberations for your delight!
Our main paper
Nuclear energy and its potential role in Australia’s future energy mix may be the hottest debate around. Enter, the Blueprint Institute, with their report, ‘The lowest cost net-zero grid: a critical analysis of nuclear energy in Australia.’ Authors Cross, D., Ouliaris, M., Williams, L., Poulton, C., and Lubberink, J contend there may be a small but significant role for small modular reactors (SMRs) to provide clean firming in a close-to-100% renewables grid. Your intrepid hosts unpack the ultra centrist but not super critical findings which suggest some low-to-no regrets measures we can take now in case the appallingly high costs come down post 2040.
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is (if you can believe it) CBAM news! The issues paper for the Government’s Carbon Leakage Review is out and Reed wants you to read it! His sneaky twofer is the recent Australia-Tuvalu climate & security treaty.
Frankie’s One More Thing is another shout out for the Careers for Net Zero campaign. With two million workers needed for Australia’s transition there’s no time to waste if you’re net zero career curious - check it out!
Luke’s One More Thing is visiting eminence Josephine Maguire from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland speaking on the SwitchedOn podcast about the mammoth job of running a one-stop-shop for home energy upgrades.
And Frankie’s one more one more thing is a huge shout out to the marvellous Alison Reeve for her stellar run on LMSU the past couple of months! We are looking forward to Alison joining us for our Holiday Movie Special…
… which we’re fission for ideas on! Send your hot tips on climate themed movies to mailbag@letmesumup.net, xeet ‘em at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed, @alison_reeve and @FrankieMuskovic, or blu ‘em at @lukemenzel.bsky.social @tennantreed.bsky.social, @frankiemuskovic.bsky.social and @reevealison.bsky.social.
Our starter is the Strategic Plan of the revived State Electricity Commission of Victoria. What are they up to? Much more than we expected! Large scale clean energy investment, taking on existing contracts for difference, getting into electrification, skills, and governance! No really, that last one might be the most controversial. Overall it’s very interesting and pretty positive, despite Tennant’s xenomorphic metaphors!
Our main paper
Residual emissions are the stuff that requires the Net in Net Zero - the emissions that can’t be (or, at least, aren’t) eliminated and have to be balanced by removals of carbon from the atmosphere through biological and/or engineered processes. Previously we covered a report on the scope of potential removals and one on the issues involved in Australian removals specifically. Now we consider a paper on how big residual emissions may be, based on the currently available Long Term Strategies submitted under the Paris Agreement: Why residual emissions matter right now - by Buck, Carton, Lund and Markusson.
The authors tot up 51 published national strategies, including Australia’s very own late-2021 contribution (a rather more elaborate successor is now being developed). They find a rather high level of residuals; little specificity or consistency around their definition or presentation; and more residuals than the same nations’ land sectors are expected to be able to soak up. At best, a work in progress!
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is a speech on energy and net zero industry by the Federal Treasurer that foreshadows a big, but not just spendy, Superpower push in the 2024-25 Budget.
Alison’s One More Thing is a fascinating transcript of a discussion on how the world navigates energy security, economic prosperity, and geopolitics through the period of cross-over between the decline of fossil fuels and the growth of renewables.Who are the winners and the losers are going to be? What are the prospects for various types of mineral-exporting countries? How does a world with terminally declining oil demand look?
Luke’s One More Thing is an epic takedown of Integrated Assessment Models for a lay audience “When Idiot Savants do Climate Economics”.
And Alison’s one more one more thing is: this is the last episode of her initial LMSU run! Frankie’s Podcast Mat Leave is coming to an end. But Alison will return when the stars are right (or the Holiday Movie Special looms)...
Send all your residual paper suggestions and thoughts (after eliminating all the bad ones) to mailbag@letmesumup.net, xeet ‘em at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed, @alison_reeve and @FrankieMuskovic, or blu ‘em at @lukemenzel.bsky.social @tennantreed.bsky.social and @reevealison.bsky.social.
We start with a quick summary of the High Court of Australia’s decision in Vanderstock v Victoria, which struck down as unconstitutional the State of Victoria’s Distance Based Charge on Zero and Low Emissions Vehicles (aka the EV Tax). But we rapidly descend into an unqualified but compelling fiesta of legal speculation - is State-based EV taxation really dead, and what other unrelated taxes and charges might now be unsound?
Our main paper
More and more governments have been making use of Contracts for Difference as a tool of energy and climate policy - first to drive clean electricity generation investment, and now for hydrogen and low-emissions industry. These contracts guarantee project revenue per unit of output won’t fall below an agreed price. But who pays, and are any costs fairly distributed?
A new paper from Tim Nelson and Tracey Dodd, Contracts-for-Difference: An assessment of social equity considerations in the renewable energy transition, provides a preliminary look based on applying hypothetical costs of the NSW variation on CFDs to hardship customer data from a major retailer. They think the results indicate current CFDs may be highly inequitable, putting the most cost on those least able to afford it. But are they right - and what is the whole picture of CFD impacts? We had thoughts!
One more things
Alison’s One More Thing is the CEFC’s annual report, featuring some big numbers (and big context) for the capital needed for clean industry.
Tennant’s One More Thing is: “The momentum of the solar energy transition” by Nijsse et al, in Nature Communications - which offers updated Business As Usual projections for how the world’s energy systems would evolve without new policy.
Luke’s One More Thing is the Careers for Net Zero Campaign, a big national effort to highlight the urgent need to ramp up the capability and capacity of the clean economy workforce – featuring our very own Francesca Muskovic!
Equitably share the wealth of your thoughts and paper suggestions with mailbag@letmesumup.net or @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed, @alison_reeve (or @tennantreed.bsky.social and @reevealison.bsky.social for hipsters) and @FrankieMuskovic.
We begin with the highs and lows of the International Energy Agency’s updated 1.5 Degrees Scenario, which notes fast progress on scaleup of key technologies that is - just - compensating for slow progress on emissions reductions. IEA reckon 1.5 degrees is still possible without immense reliance on overshoot and net negative emissions; but there’s a big gap between what would be needed to achieve that and most economies’ current plans.
Our main paper
Benefit-cost analysis informs - and sometimes dictates - a lot of policy decisions about climate and energy, and how the sums are done really matters. In “Efficiency vs. Welfare in Benefit-Cost Analysis: The Case of Government Funding”, law professors and frequent Democratic administration officials Zachary Liscow and Cass Sunstein (coauthor of policy pageturner “Nudge”!) explain what’s up with a major Biden Administration rewrite of key guidance to public agencies.
The new approach will re-target benefit cost analysis from prioritising economic efficiency to prizing overall welfare. This means either weighting costs and benefits by the incomes of the affected communities (since an extra dollar creates more welfare improvement for a poor person than a rich one), or averaging values across broader regions.
Critics from the Society for Benefit Cost Analysis hate it! Liscow and Sunstein reckon it’s a great start that can produce much fairer and better decisions - including about climate adaptation.
Will Australia end up taking these ideas on board? Will they survive the next US Administration? Why do our hosts disagree about rivers? Listen to find out!
One more things
Alison’s One More Thing is Margaret Cook’s history of floods in Brisbane, “A River With A City Problem”, soon due for a new edition covering all-new floods!
Tennant’s One More Thing is the commencement of the EU’s path-breaking (for sure), WTO-respecting (they say) and delightfully kawaii (contested) Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
Luke’s One More Thing is a speech by AEMC Chair Anna Collyer that highlights the role of Consumer Energy Resources and of regulators in unlocking it - and maybe ripostes the critique of Ron Ben-David?
Don’t weigh any costs or benefits before sending your thoughts and paper suggestions to mailbag@letmesumup.net or @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed, @alison_reeve (or @tennantreed.bsky.social and @reevealison.bsky.social for hipsters) and @FrankieMuskovic.
This satisfyingly hourlong episode (you’re welcome) starts with a discussion of the United Kingdom’s recent reset of climate policies, which PM Rishi Sunak casts as a “more pragmatic, proportionate and realistic approach” to Net Zero, and others decry as a mix of backsliding on things that matter and cancellation of things that weren’t even proposed.* Is this a sign of things to come?
Maybe, say the (prescient? Or simply well-hedged?) authors of…
Our main paper
… “No Time To Lose: New Scenario Narratives for Action on Climate Change” by Mark Cliffe and teams from the University of Exeter and the Universities Superannuation Scheme. This takes the shortcomings of Integrated Assessment Models familiar from previous episodes such as Episode 6 (“An orange, a picture of an apple and a mandarine shaped eraser: Critiquing Integrated Assessment Models”), notes that IAMs remain fundamental to well-intentioned efforts to understand the future such as the Network for Greening the Financial System, and sets out the beginnings of a different approach.
New scenarios, focussed not on climate change to 2050 but on extreme weather and the politics and economics of climate and energy to 2030, aim to provide a greater spread of relevant possibilities and provide decision-relevant information. But do they succeed? Opinions differ!
Three cited examples of differing paradigms for prognostication are:
- The Rupert Way et al simple abstract world energy system model included in The Oxford Learning Rates Paper we keep banging on about (originally in Episode 11)
- Absurdly complex and bug-riddled simulationism like wonderful nerdy videogame Dwarf Fortress
- The ultimate prediction science of Psychohistory in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels
One more things
Alison’s One More Thing is the National Electricity Law, which has recently been amended to include an emissions reduction objective at s7(c) of the Schedule. Now to flesh out how that will be reflected in decisionmaking…
Tennant’s One More Thing is the Victorian Renewable Gas Consultation Paper, open for submissions til 6 October.
Luke’s One More Thing is a video game called Umurangi Generation, in which cyberpunk and anime aesthetics collide with a landscape shaped by climate disaster. Available on Steam, and discussed in another podcast!
What could possibly top all that, perspicacious Summerupperers? Find out next time - or tell us yourself via mailbag@letmesumup.net or @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed, @alison_reeve and @FrankieMuskovic.
*PS: we realised after recording that Alison referred to ULEV (ultra-low emission vehicle) instead of ULEZ (ultra-low emissions zone) in our opening segment on the Great British Back Off. ULEZ is correct. It’s hard enough to keep the Australian acronyms straight some days, let alone the British ones.
Newly informed and inspired by generous listener survey responses, LMSU bullseyes the 1 hour median YOU demanded! That’s the power of data.
Carbon Leakage Corner:
This ep we start with the Australian Government’s Carbon Leakage Review, which has found its supreme commander in the form of universally respected ANU boffin Prof Frank Jotzo. Somehow Tennant discusses this without CBAM taking over the whole episode.
Our main paper:
… is the Climate Change Authority’s April 2023 “Reduce, remove and store: The role of carbon sequestration in accelerating Australia’s decarbonisation”
It’s a thought provoking one with plenty of policy ideas for lifting the quality, readiness and deployment of sequestration without de-prioritising emissions cuts. And it marks an evolution in CCA thinking beyond the old paradigm of “a tonne is a tonne”.
🎶 A lot of T’s and C’s apply, as DACCS goes by...🎶
You may want to pre-listen to Episode 18 of LMSU, on 'The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal' global report, which sets out a lot of the science and problems to which the CCA is providing policy responses.
One more things:
Alison’s One More Thing is an ill wind that blows no good in the UK
Tennant’s One More Thing is the 7th Australia-China High-Level Dialogue
Luke’s One More Thing is Ron Ben-David’s latest paper - a selection of more specific solutions to the issues with Australian energy market governance raised last episode by the Notorious RBD. Plus a handy write up of both by Ben Potter in the Fin!
Another episode sequestered, but for how long? Watch for podcast leakage, vigilant Summerupperers, and send further thoughts and papers to mailbag@letmesumup.net or via @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed, @alison_reeve and @FrankieMuskovic.
Frankie’s maternity leave is well underway (it’s a girl!) meaning a new host graciously filling in (Alison Reeve) and a new shownote-writer rather less graciously filling in (Tennant).
After briefly speculating on the virtues of peak energy nerd board game Power Grid (none of us have played it, but we hear good things!) we make a fresh listener appeal: tell us how we’re doing with the podcast and what you want, including shorter/longer episodes and more/less energy/Dungeons & Dragons crossover content, in our quick and easy survey. You’ll be glad you did!
Then it’s a quick tour of the climate bits of the 2023 Intergenerational Report (IGR). Treasury’s latest take on the fiscal long term view has much more to say about climate than ever before. But is it any good?
Our main paper this time is “Rethinking markets, regulation and governance for the energy transition” by Dr Ron Ben-David, arch-econocrat, ex-head of the Victorian Essential Services Commission, original-recipe NEM contributor, and deep thinker on markets and regulation. The Notorious RBD now reckons our whole energy market design and associated regulatory and governance structures are increasingly unsound given the move from a steady-state energy system to massive transition. He offers a lot of energy policy provocations, a dash of literary reference and a splash of AI conspiracy. Well worth a read as well as a listen!
Tennant’s One More Thing is the tiny deckbuilding videogame Green New Deal Simulator by Paolo Pedercini - get it for free on iOS, Android or Steam and get ready to chortle (or bristle) at the policy judgments embedded in its simple game mechanics!
Alison’s One More Thing is the 19th anniversary of Australian jurisdictions’ agreement to introduce mandatory disclosure of energy efficiency of residential property at the time of sale or lease. But PSYCH! because only the ACT has got around to doing this. So far!
Luke’s One More Thing is the NSW response to Victoria’s statewide decision to end new residential gas connections starting in 2024: The Premier says nope, won’t follow; but several councils say “yep, we’re doing our own thing.” A seamless national economy in the making!
And that’s the episode that was, beloved Summerupperers! Keep circulating the policy papers, or at least emailing them to
mailbag@letmesumup.net, and xeeting further thoughts at us via @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed, @alison_reeve and - if new baby permits time to scroll X: The Everything App - @FrankieMuskovic
.
It’s GAS CRISIS CORNER redux this week and so 2022 as European gas markets were seriously spooked. Russia? Nyet this time! In fact a response to developments far closer to home with potential industrial action at WA offshore LNG plants owned by Chevron and Woodside driving prices up by 40%. Yikes! With these plants collectively responsible for over 10% of global gas exports your intrepid hosts wondered whether the diversification juggernaut could be coming for Oz LNG. We shall see.
GenCost or GenCON? That is the question Sumerupperers as An Honest Broker, A Cleanskin and An Ultra Centrist unpack the latest annual offering from CSIRO and AEMO in GenCost 2022-23: annual electricity cost estimates for Australia. We’ll let you find out which one of us claims to be the Honest Broker as we chat through the latest cost estimates for all the technologies (inflation impacts inbound!) and just why this annual affair always attracts antagonists keen to weaponise Levelised Costs of Energy.
Tennant’s One More Thing is a recount of T. Reed’s Day Off with a recent escapade to an AGL Loy Yang A Energy Hub event and again manages a sneaky twofer in confirming the exciting prospect of previously purported room temperature superconductor LK-99 is in fact, not one.
Luke’s One More Thing is a PSA for an awesome little outfit Psychology For a Safe Climate, dedicated to supporting people facing the reality of climate change. Focused on supporting mental health and wellbeing, we thoroughly commend their resources to refill your cup.
Frankie’s One More Thing is her last One More Thing for a while! Off to birth a tiny human, Frankie dons her Global VP of Marketing and Extortion hat to IMPLORE YOU, our dear Summeruppers, to help us make the pod the best it can be by filling out this EXTREMELY SHORT AND PAINLESS SURVEY. REALLY WE PROMISE, THIS WON’T HURT A BIT. Please and thank you!
And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
FLAMING HOT news out of Victoria – the State Government’s announcement of a ban on planning permits for gas connections to new homes from 1 Jan 2024 – had your intrepid hosts speculating on whether this is indeed the beginning of the end for domestic gas use in Australia. A big call but consensus was that this is an inflection point!
And that wasn’t the only news to share with our Summeruppers this week. Dun dun DUNNNN!! It turns out that in addition to recording the occasional pod with Luke and Tennant, Frankie has been growing a tiny human who is about to make their debut! While Frankie will be taking a short break from the pod, we are delighted to announce that Luke and Tennant will not be left unsupervised and will be joined by friend of the pod, climate maven and lovely human-to-boot Alison Reeve. Welcome to the LMSU gang Alison!
This week your intrepid hosts DIG DEEP to unearth the state of the world’s critical minerals through the International Energy Agency’s inaugural Critical Minerals Market Review 2023. Lithium, nickel, cobalt oh my - there’s something for everyone in this report, including HUUUGE opportunities for Australia. But not according to everyone. The Productivity Commission remains unconvinced. That didn’t stop Tennant from upping his meme game and finding a way to make this also about CBAM. Because ALL ROADS LEAD TO CBAM.
Tennant’s One More Thing was actually Two More Things: a reflection on the highs and lows of his recent trip to Darwin for the Developing Northern Australia Conference, followed some excited speculation on a paper claiming discovery of a room-temperature, normal-pressure superconductor. Is it legit? We’ll see!
Frankie’s One More Thing is Chris Bowen’s announcement the government will develop six sectoral plans as part of the long awaited One-Net-Zero-Plan-to-Rule-Them-All. Due by the end of 2024 they will be delivered with the hotly anticipated 2035 interim target. Watch this space.
Luke’s One More Thing is a plug for his other pod (outrageous isn’t it) First Fuel in which he unpacks all things ELECTRIFICATION with the guru of gurus Jan Rosenow. Get it in your ears NOW people!
And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
In this week’s very special episode, your intrepid hosts eschew the usual compilation of current climate affairs (it’s not like much is happening anyway) and jump into the LMSU DeLorean to time warp our way back to 1965 USA where the ties are paisley, the clothes psychedelically tie-dyed and the climate science prescient (albeit mostly being done by a bunch of white guys).
For this week’s paper we present to you Summerupperers a veritable rolled gold classic climate paper, ‘Restoring the Quality of Our Environment - Report of the Environmental Pollution Panel’ from the President’s Science Advisory Council, commissioned by then US President Lyndon B. Johnson. Delving specifically into Appendix Y4, ‘Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide’ this is a truly seminal paper that invokes the earliest use of the term ‘climatic change’, sets out the emerging science around increasing CO2 which had only recently started to be accurately measured, and puts it on the radar of a national government for the first time.
We certainly had some thoughts on the things the paper did and didn’t say and even wondered what we would have done had we been given the chance to brief LBJ on climate change in 1965 (hint, check out our LMSU Holiday Special 2022: Don’t Sum Up). We heartily commend this paper to you Summeruppers, unearthed by Tennant from the excellent website Skeptical Science.
We always have One More Thing to say and Luke gave a shout out to a paper that was mentioned (but then forthcoming) in this week’s paper from the US Weather Bureau that promised more advanced climate modelling that confirmed and built on thrust of what the President’s Science Advisory Council had to say in 1965.
And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
We start this week’s show with Tennant taking on tech titan Elon Musk by combining his two great two loves in SPREADSHEETS and SPACE to cast some serious shade on Musk’s plans around Mars colonisation, with hot takes on implications for Hydrogen along the way.
Your intrepid hosts also revisit the latest quarterly update from the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory for Dec 2022 and try as Frankie might to induce sleepiness a la BBC shipping forecast readouts with the numbers, no dice! TLDR: emissions reduction flatlined and there is cause for concern that the rollout of energy transition infrastructure is nowhere near fast enough! And what about our friendly neighborhood Cinderella, Energy Efficiency? Not getting enough attention.
Our deep dive this week is a GAS! We unpack the hot-off-the-press Grattan Institute report ‘Getting off gas: why, how, and who should pay?’ brought to us by authors Tony Wood, Alison Reeve and Esther Suckling. We had many things to say on the report’s many insights and recommendations! If this paper piques your interest, you are likely to find these golden nuggets in our back catalogue diverting:
- On the future of gas in the EU - “EU academy adjudicates hydrogen vs. electrification smackdown!”
- On learning rates - “Ka-ching! Act now for huge learning rate savings!”
- On gas transition in Australia - “Infrastructure Victoria presents: A Very December 2021 Gas Report”
- On transport of hydrogen - “Elementary, my dear IRENA: Hydrogen transport”
Frankie’s One More Thing is offsets redux! Revisiting the subject of our second ever episode, the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative have finally finalised and launched their Claims Code of Practice.
Tennant’s One More Thing is: are clean trade negotiations between EU and US on brink of collapse? With some content harking back to our episode on Climate Clubs, the approach to encourage clean steel and aluminium from the US has received a not-so-friendly reception from the EU. Where to from here? Hopefully not a trade war!
Luke’s One More Thing is the most recent two episodes from one of our favourite podcasts, Origin Story, which takes on climate change denial. Reminiscent of some great writing on the topic (Merchants of Doubt, anyone?) get both Part One and Part Two of this double barrelled delight in our ears ASAP.
And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
Summerupperers, it’s our birrrrtthday and we want to say a giant THANK YOU for listening this past year we’ve been in your ears! You're the reason we started this crazy podcasting adventure - we wanted to create a supportive space for all the climate professionals out there who pour so much of themselves into their work and passion for climate action, and it’s been a genuine delight to meet many of you in person at the various goings on since we launched the pod.
Now down to business in Bonn. Specifically, the Bonn Climate Conference, an important milestone in the lead up to COP28 to be hosted in the UAE later this year. What happened there? Arguments abounded on the agenda for COP28, from climate finance redux to concern over a lack of further ambition on mitigation efforts. And there was the pushback against COP28 President Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber for running an oil company, and THEN there was pushback to the pushback when said President voiced language about “phase down of unabated fossil fuels” being inevitable!
This week’s deep dive delves into the depths of DISCOUNT RATES! A compact but dense and chewy delight,‘Discounting the Distant Future: A Critique of the EPA’s Analysis of the Social Cost of Carbon’, is brought to us by Geoffrey M. Heal, Noah Kaufman and Antony Millner at Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy. This paper had your intrepid hosts debating the merits of descriptive vs ethical approaches and let’s just say there are no easy answers but plenty of numbers.
If this paper piques your interest, Episode 6 in our back catalogue, ‘An orange, a picture of an apple and a mandarine shaped eraser’: Critiquing Integrated Assessment Models’ is a doozy.
Frankie’s One More Thing is to alert you to the many brilliant and freely available talks from philosopher Michael Sandel (quoted in this week’s paper) including this BBC special on Should the Rich World Pay for Climate Change?, his first year Harvard course Justice, and this great talk on the moral limit of markets.
Tennant’s One More Thing is the slamming of a paper on the impact of the EU CBAM on Africa. Tennant really, really didn’t like this paper. So much so that he was driven to engage in the brave, new (for one T Reed) world of LinkedIn to write a blistering takedown of said paper. This is NOT the one his cat deleted.
Luke’s One More Thing is a plug for the latest from irreverent Aussie energy newsletter Currently Speaking on a very important issue occupying the minds of many (any?) climate aficionados. That is, how DO you pronounce AEMO? Read their exclusive investigation here.
And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
Is the recently announced Australia-US Climate, Critical Minerals and Clean Energy Transformation Compact going to mean Australia gets to ride the wave of the subsidy superbonanza Inflation Reduction Act rather than get dumped by it? Perhaps too soon to tell, but your intrepid hosts can always be relied on for a hot take!
Shirtfranking with Frontie includes a PSA for the very excellent app for ethical brand ratings, Good On You, and a rundown on known forced labour and modern slavery risks in cotton t-shirt supply chains. And because all roads lead to climate chat on this pod, there is an intersection with the manufacture of solar panels. Of course there is
This week’s deep dive is a GAS! Specifically, ‘The Future of Gas’, according to the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC). This paper found us heavily referencing our back catalogue (but neglecting to actually properly point to the episodes), so newer Summerupperers might want to check out these gems:
- On GWP20 v GWP100 - “Measure twice, cut nunce? Tackling methane from Aussie coal mines”
- On learning rates - “Ka-ching! Act now for huge learning rate savings!”
- On gas transition in Australia - “Infrastructure Victoria presents: A Very December 2021 Gas Report”
- On transport of hydrogen - “Elementary, my dear IRENA: Hydrogen transport”
Frankie’s One More Thing is the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis article on the latest cost estimates of the small modular nuclear reactor from NuScale and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems. Hint: it’s gotten way more exxy, mostly due to construction supply chain cost increases. Prediction: it won’t be the last cost increase!
Tennant’s One More Thing is “Victoria’s 2035 Climate Action Target: Driving Growth And Prosperity”, the final report from the independent expert panel that recommended a 2035 target of an 80% emissions reduction on 2005 levels for Victoria. Hat tip to Tennant who served on the panel and to the Victorian Government for adopting their recommended target!
Luke’s One More Thing is the smorgasbord of climate stars who visited Australian shores to participate in the Energy Efficiency Council’s recent National Conference. Hear from heat pump aficionado Jan Rosenow by revisiting his appearance on ABC Radio doing energy technology: hot or not? And Jacques Morris from the UK’s Transition plan Task Force talking net zero transition plans at an Australian Sustainable Finance Institute event. Oh and Rob Murray-Leach's literal swan song at the Conference's Gala dinner after 14 years at the Energy Efficiency Council. We'll miss you Rob!
And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
Jump into the LMSU DeLorean for a trip back in time to an episode recorded before our recent Budget Spectacular. With the power vested in him as LMSU Global Vice President for editing the show, Luke has wisely excised budget predictions but kept our then hot (now only slightly warm) takes on Australia's new National Net Zero Authority. This is but a pit stop on the path to the true focus of the opening segment though: the extremely important matter of our burgeoning t-shirt empire gets its own corner on the pod! That’s right, your intrepid hosts are investigating the most sustainable way to produce some seriously magic merch for you Summerupperers and will keep you posted as we delve into the depths of this particular rabbit hole of sustainable t-shirt procurement. AND if this happens to be YOUR area of expertise, we want to hear from you with all the tips you can bestow!
This week’s paper is a recent selection from the Investor Group on Climate Change's recent back-catalogue of publications, Driving Australian Climate Innovation: Unlocking capital to support a clean industrial revolution. Let’s just say the patient capital is not so patient!
Frankie’s One More Thing is the other recent IGCC paper she thought we were supposed to read for the pod - WRONG! - but a great read nonetheless, The State of Australian Net Zero Investment. This survey of a hefty cohort of Australia’s institutional asset owners and managers reveals progress on net zero commitments, interim targets and a growing interest in pure-play climate transition investments, rare birds though they may be in Aus right now.
Tennant’s One More Thing is the release of the draft Mandatory Gas Industry Code of Conduct, which unlike the voluntary version of said code (responsible for sucking many irretrievable hours of his life away) looks able to do things! Among the more controversial things is the ability to maintain price caps on domestic gas use for the next couple of years. And then of course there is the question of what happens next?
Luke’s One More Thing is a recent episode of the excellent Watt Matters pod, featuring not one but TWO friends of LMSU, and not one but TWO experts on heat pumps who nerd out on… heat pumps! More precisely, the growth of heat pumps in the European market and their intersection with the tricky issue of regulating the phase out of F-gases. If you’re not already fans of Dr. Jan Rosenow and Thomas Nowak then frankly do you even climate? Get onto it folks!
And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
We interrupt regularly scheduled programming of your fortnightly 45-min (you laugh, but we actually managed it this time!) deep dive into climate and energy papers of note to bring you LMSU’s 2023-24 Budget Spectacular!
That’s right! Strap in Summerupperers, your intrepid hosts are coming in hot with takes on the climate and energy-related budget announcements from the Albanese Government’s second budget. There’s just a bit to unpack here.
BONUS CHALLENGE for eagle-eared Summeruppers: to what are we referring in our subtitle ‘Cinderella goes to the ball’? Hint: our back catalogue may have the answers. Hint hint: it’s definitely not Frankie’s attendance at the budget lockup (even though that might be her idea of a policy wonk’s good time). Tweet/LinkedIn us your guess!
If 46 minutes of sweet sweet budget content isn't enough, Luke and Tennant have been talking budget measures on LinkedIn this week (because Twitter is going to hell):
See Luke's wrap of energy budget measures, featuring bonus debate in the comments, including a great conversation on the utility of the CEFC capital injection for residential energy performance upgrades.
And find out what Tennant's famous dodgy spreadsheet says about what the Hydrogen Headstart program might achieve.
And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts on all things climate and energy to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
Hands up who wants Tennant to complete his rewording of ‘We didn’t start the fire’ for the pod?!
Now that you’ve had the taste of Billy Joel-goes LMSU you didn’t know you needed in your lives, your intrepid hosts weigh into the week’s developments by zeroing in on the government’s release of their electric vehicle strategy. Overhyped? Perhaps, but while there are a lot of familiar things on the menu, there’s a new CAFE in town and we don’t mean the hipster coffee variety either! That’s right, we’re looking at the introduction of the first fuel efficiency standards in Australia, with a consultation running until the end of May on the design.
This week we dive into the Energy System Transformation section of the just-released IEA country assessment, ‘Australia 2023: Energy Policy Review’. With lots to say about the energy sector’s response to climate change, progress on energy efficiency, renewable energy and R&D, this report packs a lot of punch and your intrepid hosts have more than a few hot takes of our own!
But wait, there's more: it’s a shameless week of self-dealing when it comes to One More Things!
Frankie’s One More Thing is the launch of Every Building Counts, the Property Council and Green Building Council’s joint policy platform for a zero-carbon-ready and resilient built environment. Frankie is a bit chuffed to be launching this report, which also comes hot on the heels of Jim Chalmers’ investor roundtable on energy with some significant commitments to energy efficiency ratings for homes. Huzzah!
Luke’s One More Thing is a new report from the EEC’s resident efficiency guru, Rob Murray-Leach, Clean Energy, Clean Demand. A cracking read and roadmap for optimising the role of demand management as the grid gets greener. And because he’s a cheeky bugger with a sneaky twofer, he’s dared to plug his gasp other podcast here! Tragics that we are, we still can’t resist a plug for A Very ETI Episode of First Fuel, unpacking the excellent report from Climateworks Centre and Climate KIC just released on pathways to industrial decarbonisation.
Tennant’s One More Thing is a bastion of integrity with no self-interest in sight. He’s flagging a flurry of activity in the US on a series of regulatory ‘sticks’ in the form of regulations from the EPA, addressing tightening of vehicle fuel efficiency standards, emissions of power plants and emissions from the gas sector. Quite the contrast from the hurricane of carrots that is the Inflation Reduction Act!
And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
This week’s episode is one we prepared earlier (26 March 2023 to be exact) which means past us have just found out that Labor won the NSW election, and we don’t yet know the Safeguard Mechanism reforms are destined to pass Parliament with Greens support.
Slightly confusing, but bear with us as we forge ahead, titillating and teasing our dear Summeruperers with the promise of Tennant’s t-shirt designs invoking Die Hard/Die Harder but make it Safeguard. Folks, if you want to see the glory that is the ‘Safe Guarder’ premier LMSU t-shirt design start your twitter engines and let the spamming begin!
Before we dive into this week’s paper we discuss the recent release of the IPCC’s Synthesis report, completing the Sixth Assessment Report. The last major report we’ll see from the IPCC prior to the end of this critical decade, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned, the “climate time-bomb is ticking” and we need “climate action on all fronts - everything, everywhere, all at once.” Hear, hear!
This week’s paper is a swashbuckling sum-up (slaying?) of Volume 6: Managing the climate transition, part of the national Productivity Commission’s latest 5-yearly productivity inquiry, the 1,000 page monster Advancing Prosperity. A hard no for charismatic abatement but a yes on one economy-wide policy to rule them all, your intrepid hosts have thoughts! Many, many thoughts.
Tennant’s One More Thing is a shout out to the smart folks in NSW Treasury on a newly produced guideline, TPG23-08 NSW Government Guide to Cost-Benefit Analysis, which bakes in a value of carbon referencing the EU ETS spot price (around $140/tonne). Super interesting prospects for government policy making. Kudos NSW Treasury peeps!
Frankie’s One More Thing is the recent (well it was when we recorded!) NSW election result with the NSW Labor party claiming victory for the first time in twelve years. Recapping key climate election commitments, a good foundation and plenty of room for more ambition!
Luke’s One More Thing completes the NSW trifecta with a shout out to outgoing NSW Treasurer, Energy and Climate Minister, Matt Kean, for championing the economic opportunities of the climate transition and his contribution to bipartisan climate policy in recent years. A hat tip to you, Matt!
And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
Completing our triumphant trilogy of trilogues* on the Safeguard Mechanism, we’re back and it’s Safe Guard With a Vengeance! That’s right, we’re bringing you a special Rapid Response to Developments as the Safeguard(s?) reforms make their way through the Parliament following the Albanese Government’s deal with the Australian Greens.
And if it wasn’t already Christmas come early for you crazy climatephiles, your intrepid hosts are joined by a very special guest, none other than Guardian Australia’s climate and environment editor, Adam Morton! Adam has been obsessively cataloguing the Safeguard reforms - with a vengeance dare we say - read some of his excellent coverage here.
And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
- See Episode 7 - ‘The last fire in the forest’: The Safeguard Mechanism consultation paper and Episode 17 - New Dork Times: Chubb/Safeguard Special Double Report Report Special, or ‘Safe Guarder’ as we affectionately know it!
** Two of which involved four people!
MASSIVE DOWN & DIRTY DISCLAIMER: We recorded this episode on Wednesday evening, 29 March, and who knows what additional shenanigans may have occurred by the time this ep is hitting your ears! If you’re as tragic as us, you can track the Bill’s progress through Parliament here. Or just read the news!
Your intrepid hosts start this week’s rollicking rollercoaster by recounting the annual rending of clothes and gnashing of teeth that arises from AEMO’s Gas Statement of Opportunities, affectionately(?) known as the GSOO! How worried should we be about the market operator’s forecast on next year’s demand and longer term outlook on the supply of fossil gas? You may be shocked that there were differing perspectives out there in energy land (including some very sensible suggestions from friend of the pod Tristan Edis)!
A shout out to Thomas Longden, one of the authors of last pod’s paper on hydrogen production emissions and costs, who reached out to us - Hi! - and pointed us in the direction of a handy explainer they’d written up on the paper in The Conversation. Well worth a read, however this plug should not be taken as encouragement for Summeruperers to defect from the pod and seek other handy explainers!
Speaking of defectors, you wouldn’t be doing too great in the world of Bill’s Angels if the Norhausian thesis on climate clubs had made its way to the climate zeitgeist. We are indeed speaking of the eminent, illustrious, notorious economist and father of integrated assessment models (yep those pesky IAMs), William Nordhaus, whose 2015 paper Climate Clubs: Overcoming Free-riding in International Climate Policy your intrepid hosts tackle this week. Luke and Frankie sleep-walked into Tennant’s trap on this one, as well as another, far more sensible, paper on climate clubs, Climate clubs: politically feasible and desirable? written by Robert Falkner, Naghmeh Nasiritousix and Gunilla Reischl. And because we really are that tragic we also unpack the G7’s recent announcement of a climate club, its terms of reference and our best feelpinions on how that might go!
Frankie’s One More Thing is a neat bit of analysis from the IEA on the record fall in fossil gas demand in Europe in 2022. Weather, renewables growth, electrification and behaviour change all get a guernsey!
Luke’s One More Thing is the EU parliament’s recent passing of an amendment to the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive to up the ante on renovation rates and performance of the EU’s poorer performing building stock. Woot! Off to trilogues it goes, however not without some controversy in the form of a carve out for ‘renewable gas-ready’ boilers.
Tennant’s One More Thing is the Productivity Commission’s 5-year Productivity Inquiry report, Advancing Prosperity. Or more specifically, volume 6 of this 1,000 page monster, Managing the climate transition. Expand the Safeguard? Rubbish other policies? Tennant has thoughts!
And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
Frankie and Tennant start the pod by making Luke jealous for missing their serendipitous Sydney airport rendez-vous late on a Monday evening before reflecting on the quality of T Reed’s ties and pivoting to the IRApocalyse we find ourselves in? Your intrepid hosts discuss whether, as some are contending, the IRA will eat Australia’s renewable hydrogen lunch. With serious subsidies flowing in the US threatening to cannibalise investment in green hydrogen elsewhere (here!), it seems a prudent step for Australia to review our 2019 Hydrogen strategy.
Our colourful climate conundrum this week is ‘Clean’ Hydrogen? An analysis of the emissions and costs of fossil fuel based versus renewable electricity based hydrogen*, brought to us by Thomas Longden, Fiona J. Beck, Frank Jotzo, Richard Andrews, Mousami Prasad. And whilst this paper didn’t lay out the RAINBOW of the bajillion different methods of hydrogen production, friend of the pod Tim Baxter has gotta catch ‘em all like pokemon, read his excellent blog post on all the colours of hydrogen here.
*After we recorded the episode, the Japanese Government announced the next stage of the Latrobe Valley CCS hydrogen project was shortlisted for up to AUD2.3 Billion in finance. One to watch!
Frankie’s One More Thing is her and the fam’s fun on the Pride March over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the atmosphere of fabulousness experienced over the last fortnight as Sydney played host to WorldPride for the first time. This year the Mardi Gras banned all use of single plastics - that’s right, no glitter! (unless it’s the water soluble, biodegradable kind) #loveislove.
Tennant’s One More Thing is a cracking episode of Volts, ‘How to think about solar radiation management’, a conversation with Kelly Wanser of SilverLining, who focus on research and policy efforts on near-term climate risks and interventions such as increasing the reflection of sunlight from clouds and particles in the atmosphere. Give it a whirl peeps!
Luke’s One More Thing is the peculiar and increasing prevalence of the term ‘Safeguards’ in relation to the Safeguard Mechanism. The addition of an errant s has some hot and bothered (Hi Tim Baxter again!) but could Patient Zero of the ‘Safeguards’ be our very own Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen? Summeruperers we’re counting on you to get to the bottom of this.
And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
What would Bing’s chatbot make of your intrepid hosts’ attempts to achieve the elusive 45 minute podcast we promised our Summeruperers all that time ago? As T Reed conjures increasingly elaborate powerpoints that (so far) have failed to keep us in line, we’ve decided to stick with Clippy for fear of Bing chatbot seeking to turn us against each other Yoko Ono style and breaking up the pod. Welcome to your fortnightly one-hour 45 minute podcast!
We revisit the last fire in the forest this week as the fear of Safeguard embers dimming is on minds across the Aussie climatesphere (with not a little PTSD from the CPRS days) as the political debate over legislating for Safeguard SMCs sees a stalemate of worrying familiarity. Where will the ground give - limits on offset use, treatment of new facilities, baselines? We refrain from speculating too hard lest we bend the karmic space time continuum to guarantee no ground is given at all. AKA watching brief.
Our curated paper of choice this week for you dear Summerupers is the world’s first comprehensive assessment of the State of Carbon Dioxide Removal brought to you by a host of experts in CDR who are also authors of IPCC reports, the lead authors being Stephen M Smith, Oliver Geden, Jan C Minx and Gregory F Nemet. This paper was brought to US by Summeruperer Filomena Beshara - many thanks for your excellent suggestion!
Frankie’s One More Thing is her recent out of body experience seeing the Sydney Theatre Company’s one-woman spectacular The Picture of Dorian Gray starring Eryn Jean Norvill.
Tennant’s One More Thing is a climate change-solving computer game called Terra Invicta in which solving the climate crisis is a mere byproduct of fending off an alien invasion!
Luke’s One More Thing is the recent annual foresighting forum held by Energy Consumers Australia. Putting people at the heart of the energy transition is what they do best! Sessions will be available here shortly if you’d like to watch back.
And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net
Weeeeee’re baaaack! Miss us? A very happy 2023 to you Summerupperers, we hope you all had a fabulous break and respite from reading ALL the climate and energy papers. And as we kick things off in the new year, the landscape is serene and quiet, not a climate paper or consultation in sight… jokes trigger warning
Before diving into our double header, we note some early success for Tennant’s weird-and-until-recently-rather-obscure obsession with CBAMs because, in their Safeguard mechanism design paper, the Government committed to a review of policy options to further address carbon leakage - including an Australian CBAM! Tennant is just a bit excited. Given he wrote the paper on implications of CBAMs for Australia (hell he even made a cake out of it and talked to Luke on his other podcast about it) we felt it only appropriate to give a hat tip to Tennant’s role in stimulating local CBAM curiosity - bravo Mr Reed!
Of the ELEVENTY BILLION consultations and reviews running at the moment your intrepid hosts simply cannot choose just one! This episode is a double header doozy delight where we unpack the findings of Professor Ian Chubb’s review of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) and then dive into the proposed design of the Safeguard Mechanism in the Government’s reform paper and THEN talk about the implications of one for the other, and vice versa. Incidentally, the Safeguard design paper is out for consultation. If that tickles your fancy, you can have your say on the design here until February 24.
Frankie’s One More Thing is a report on the latest frontier of the American culture wars, this time featuring gas cooktops! Following comments by a US Consumer Product Safety Commission on the hidden hazards (increased child asthma anyone?) posed by gas cooktops and the suggestion that unsafe products could be banned, the right fringe of the Republican party lost their collective minds and set about to protect ‘God. Guns. GAS STOVES’. Yikes. Here’s hoping we can have a more sensible debate at home.
Tennant’s One More Thing is suitably on brand for both nerdery and obscurity. A book called ‘Ignition!: An informal history of liquid rocket propellants’ by John D. Clark. From red fuming nitric acid to the latest liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen rockets, this book has you covered. The bonus climate-related spoiler is that liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen rocketry will be a source of greenhouse gases. A Project Orion breadcrumb followed by tangent on why we don’t just build a bunch of nuclear power stations and shoot the waste into space (Luke has you covered with this educational video) and we are in danger of never finishing the pod.
Luke’s One More Thing thanks Twitter user @rockwallby for proposing the people's choice for the inaugural Papie awards, the ‘Wonkys’ (an extra special thanks from Frankie) and also reflects on how our podcast of record for climate and energy in Australia has eschewed the lamestream media’s focus on climate papers! Carbon Brief’s analysis of the climate papers most featured in the media in 2022 revealed your intrepid hosts covered but one of their top 10. We’ve decided we like our hipster climate paper niche and are less ‘Quelle catastrophe!’ and more ‘Can we fix it, yes we can!’.
And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
In this EXTRA SPECIAL HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR your intrepid hosts eschew the normal dissection of climate and energy reports and instead, in an exercise of regrettable democratic process, critique a climate movie of YOUR choice, dear Summerupperers.
But before we do that, we kick off with the inaugural awarding of our favourite climate and energy paper of 2022. This award, which most-definitely-will-not-be-named-the-Papies, was awarded to… DRUMROLL pleeeeease…..
'Empirically grounded technology forecasts and the energy transition’ from Rupert Way, Matthew C. Ives, Penny Mealy and J. Doyne Farmer from Oxford University. AKA the learning rates paper! This paper caused quite a stir in climate circles, particularly amongst disciples and critics of IAMs alike. Using empirical data on learning rates across over 50 technologies and novel use of backcasting, this paper contended that IAMs have chronically underestimated the rate at which key technologies like solar and wind have reduced in cost and been deployed, hence overestimating the cost of the energy transition. A very worthy recipient of Let Me Sum Up’s inaugural NON-Papie! Honourable mentions for our runners up go to Infrastructure Victoria’s ‘Towards 2050: Gas Infrastructure in a Net Zero Emissions Economy’ and the Commonwealth’s ‘Safeguard Mechanism Reforms consultation paper’. And of course you could do a lot worse than hit the back catalogue to hear us discuss these three papers on Episode 11, Episode 5 and Episode 7 respectively!
Grabbing the popcorn and maybe some rotten tomatoes, your intrepid hosts settled in to critique the climate movie of your choice for 2022, the satirical comedy ‘Don’t Look Up’ in which two astronomers go on a media tour to warn humankind of a planet-killing comet hurtling toward Earth. The response from a distracted world: Meh. The response from your intrepid hosts? We’re not going to make it that easy for you Summerupperers! We watched so you can listen ;-)
Frankie's One More Thing is Noel Pearson’s Boyer Lecture for 2022, available as a podcast or on ABC iView, where he discusses constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, contending this is not a project of identity politics, but one of justice, unity and inclusion.
Tennant's One More Thing is a retro fantastic re-reading of a favourite science fiction book by William Gibson, Neuromancer, published in 1984. The origins of other pop culture gems like the Matrix, Tennant finds this example of high-tech and low-life genre of cyberpunk novel is still a cracker of a read. Go check it out!
Luke's One More Thing is a summer movie whodunnit, Glass Onion starring Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, a charming PI with a southern drawl. Reminiscent of Agatha Christie and also skewering the rich and powerful, this is currently filling Menzel’s void of Rian Johnson’s missing Star Wars trilogy so give it a watch peeps!
And that’s all from us in 2022 Summerupperers! We are taking a break in January but will be back with ever more reports to read in Feb 2023. In the meantime, happy holidays to all our wonderful Summerupperers. Thanks for listening, we hope you’ve had as much fun tuning in as we’ve had recording. Please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
Perhaps for the final time in 2022 your intrepid hosts reconvene ENERGY CRISIS CORNER. Why you might ask? Only: the spectacular recall of the Federal Parliament to pass legislation on a price cap for wholesale gas for the next year, $3bn in bill relief for vulnerable Australians to be jointly paid by the Commonwealth and the states, price caps on coal to be enacted by the states AND somewhere in there a significant commitment to fund energy efficiency and electrification for households and businesses, $TBA. So y’know. #fairbiton
This week we discuss one of the bagillion reports launched at COP27, this one from the UN High-Level Expert Group on the Net Zero Commitments of Non-State Entities, ‘Integrity Matters: Net Zero Commitments by Businesses, Financial Institutions, Cities and Regions’. AKA the Greenwashing Report!
Frankie's One More Thing is the recent announcement from Treasurer Jim Chalmers that the Government will develop a comprehensive sustainable finance strategy, including mandatory climate risk reporting, a sustainable finance taxonomy and a crackdown on corporate greenwashing. It’s allllll coming together folks.
Tennant's One More Thing is a hot-off-the-press update from European Trilogues in which an agreement was reached on a host of measures, but of most interest to our resident CBAM enthusiast, was the green light on implementation for the European CBAM which will come into force in 2026 after a 3-year transition. Enough time for other jurisdictions to implement their own CBAMs? OUI! says Tennant.
Luke's One More Thing is a cracking podcast for the politically inclined, etymology curious subset of Summeruperers (ALL OF YOU RIGHT?). Origin Story sees hosts Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey dive into the histories behind words and concepts that are commonly misunderstood and get thrown around willy nilly. McCarthyism? Woke? Centrism? This pod has got you covered.
HOLIDAY SPECIAL: Summerupperers, to a collective ‘meh’ from your intrepid hosts at the result of our poll, we will indeed dutifully go and watch Don’t Look Up and bring you what could potentially be the last remaining hot spicy vindaloo takes on this analysed-up-the-wazooo climate movie. Frankie is happy it’s not Naked Gun 2.5 (also wasn’t an option) and Tennant is about as happy as the gas industry is right now (did you catch his openly self interested and partisan campaign for Soylent Green on Twitter?). The Good News? Don't Look Up is streaming now (and likely until the End Times) on Netflix, so you can watch along at home! Go on!
And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
Recovered from epic Egyptian adventures your intrepid hosts begin by revisiting the final outcomes of the formal negotiations at COP27. That’s not the only thing we revisited though! This video of Tennant’s Beat Saber antics in the ruins of the Australia pavilion as he and Luke waited until the bitter end of COP is well worth a watch. You’re welcome ;-)
This week we unpack the Albanese Government’s first Annual Climate Change Statement, tabled by Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen in the Parliament last week, as required under the recently passed Climate Change Act. This One-Climate-Statement-to-Rule-Them-All wasn’t the only present under the climate christmas tree though! We also had a look at the Climate Change Authority’s First Annual Progress Report, Australia’s Emissions Projections for 2022 and the latest National Greenhouse Gas Inventory quarterly update, all released with the statement. A veritable feast of climate delights Summerupperers!
Aaand, if you enjoyed this week’s Numbers Talk with Frankie, is it because it recalled fond memories of the BBC’s Shipping Forecast? Shout out via the socials!
Frankie's One More Thing is a just released report from the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC), ‘Unlocking the pathway: why electrification is the key to net zero buildings’ which finds electrification is the lowest cost, fastest emissions reduction pathway for building operations and would save $49 billion out to 2050 compared to BAU. Boom!
Tennant's One More Thing is a movie he’s crushing on in which Michelle Yeoh and her fists of fury go on a rollicking adventure through the multiverses exploring lives she could have led. If you need an escape from the heavy heaviness of climate policy land for a bit go check out Everything Everywhere All at Once!
Luke's One More Thing is Katharine Murphy’s excellent new Quarterly Essay, ‘Lone Wolf: the making of Anthony Albanese’, an account of his formative years, rise to the Labor leadership and the journey through the 2022 Federal election to victory, including the internal machinations over what Labor’s climate policy should be. A fascinating read for climate policy nerds!
VERY IMPORTANT PODCAST MATTERS: Summerupperers, we need your vote on what climate-related movie we should watch and discuss for our very first holiday special and last episode of the year before the xmas break. Should it be Soylent Green, The Day After Tomorrow or Don’t Look Up? Make your vote count RIGHT HERE.
And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
Recorded on the ground in Sharm El-Sheikh as negotiations got to the pointy end of things at COP27, your intrepid hosts ditch the usual format in this very special episode of Let Me Sum Up.
Listen in as we dive into all things COP27: the hot button issues in the negotiations, the vibe on the ground and around the pavilions, Team Australia’s presence at this COP (coffee diplomacy included) as well as our personal highlights across an incredibly packed couple of weeks full of speeches, events and launches of papers! So many papers! Don’t worry Summer-upperers, we’ve got material to keep this pod going in perpetuity.
Frankie's One More Thing was a look ahead at future COPs! COP28 next year will be in Dubai, UAE, and early insights from the presidency have energy transition, finance for adaptation and inclusivity from a gender and youth lens are key thematics. Following Dubai we are looking at Eastern Europe in 2024 (Prague anyone?) and Brazil in 2025 before a potential Australian COP31 in 2026!
Tennant's One More Thing was to promote a new avenue of Let Me Sum Up cough propaganda cough CONTENT! If you were following along on our socials the last couple of weeks you will have seen us slaving away to bring you content and daily video reports on the goings on. These are now all available on our shiny new Youtube channel where you can binge watch them all over again and see cameos from legends like Anna Freeman, Matt Kean, Jojo Rouse, Richie Merzian, Darren Miller and Krista Singleton-Cambage.
Luke's One More Thing is to ask all of YOU, dear Summer-upperers, for your vote on what climate-related movie we should watch and discuss for our very first holiday special and last episode of the year before the X-mas break. Should it be Soylent Green, The Day After Tomorrow or Don’t Look Up? Make your vote count RIGHT HERE.
And that’s a wrap on COP27 from us in Sharm El-Sheikh Summer-Upperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
In this short bonus episode your intrepid hosts are joined by CEO of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, Darren Miller to unpack the latest from COP27 in Egypt. You will learn of Darren's heroics in the Australia Pavilion, why there is 'no way' negotiations will be done by Friday, and hear our hosts react to the unexpected appearance of a certain US Climate Envoy in the Bedouin Tent.
There is a video version of this episode! To see John Kerry crash a recording of Let Me Sum Up with your own eyes click here.
In a tantalising pre-COP27 gathering your intrepid hosts start by dissecting the implications of the Australian Government's commitment to sign up to the Global Methane Pledge. An initiative spear-headed by the EU and US ahead of COP26, the pledge requires signatories to commit to cutting methane emissions 30% on 2020 levels by 2030. More seaweed coming to a trough near your friendly neighbourhood cows? Most certainly, but as always, there are sectors that present more quick wins (read on!) and others that will be slower to mooove.
The locus of our focus this week is a paper by UK-based think tank Ember, 'Tackling Australia's Coal Mine Methane Problem' by Dr Sabina Assan. The paper picks up on the recent revisions by the IEA to Australia's estimated fugitive methane emissions from coal mines based on new-fangled satellite imagery and suggests measures to improve measurement, reporting, mitigation and ultimately, avoidance of coal mine methane emissions. A topical choice ahead of COP27 to be sure. What did we make of it you may ask? Listen on for spicy vindaloo and yogurt antimatter takes!
Frankie's One More Thing starts us off at the bleak end of the climate action spectrum with UNEP's Emissions Gap Report 2022. TLDR: there is currently no credible pathway to 1.5C and current policies have us on track to 2.8C of warming by the end of the century. Your intrepid hosts, ever the optimists, like to picture the window into a clean energy future Utopia is just that bit further ajar with comfort taken in recent commitments from the US and the conservative nature of models representing the uptake of renewable energy (see episode 11!).
Tennants's One More Thing had him scandalously plugging another podcast! Quelle horreur! Michael Liebreich, we salute your fantastic pod Cleaning Up and in particular, your recent episode with former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis on the structure of energy markets. A cracking and timely conversation about the role of Government in driving more structural energy market governance reform. If you felt so inclined to return the favour to your friendly neighbour pod here at Let Me Sum Up we'd love to have you on to talk all things energy transition and dare I say it, explore demand side action with fellow efficiency acolytes. Slide on in to our DMs ;-)
Luke's One More Thing brings us home by christening YOU our dear listeners with a well deserved moniker "Summer-upperers". With more syllables than the title of the pod we feel this is incredibly ON BRAND for your fortnightly one-hour, 45-min podcast on all things climate and energy. Massive thanks to listener Cynan for the inspo in coining the collective noun for this burgeoning pod community!
The next time you hear from us dear Summer-upperers will be from COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt! We look forward to dissecting and reporting the goings on over the next two weeks. Make sure you follow us on Twitter at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and in the meantime please send us your spicy vindaloo takes and suggestions for papers at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
In this short bonus episode, your intrepid hosts reveal they are all going to COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh. They also speculate on the possibility of Let Me Sum Up Live from Sharm – an event which is in no way organised, but if you will it dude, it is no dream...
This week your intrepid hosts recapped some BIG news out of Victoria with the announcement of new emissions reduction targets - 75% to 80% (on 2005 levels) by 2035, net zero by 2045 and a renewable electricity target of 95% by 2035. Wowser! The first government in Australia to formalise a 2035 target which has significant implications for the decarbonisation of fossil gas during that timeframe deserves a special shout out! Your resident Victorian co-hosts lamented the overhyped media focus on the revival of state-owned power company SEC with a measly $1Bn in funding - even if they do have a fab retro logo.
A big shout out to friend of the pod Allison Reeve for the recommendation for this week’s paper. As we’re leaning into our (initially) accidental and now somewhat intentional pile-on regarding IAMs, we’ve decided to drive another nail into the coffin of these woefully inadequate-but-still-wildy-influential models and talk technology learning rates. Specifically, a look at 'Empirically grounded technology forecasts and the energy transition’ from Rupert Way, Matthew C. Ives, Penny Mealy and J. Doyne Farmer from Oxford University. This paper has caused quite a stir in IAM-land. Were your intrepid hosts shaken, stirred, dirty or taken with a twist? Only one way to find out.
Frankie’s One More Thing is some encouraging progress on the circular economy from a recent meeting of Environment Ministers in which Commonwealth and state and territory governments committed to a product stewardship scheme for solar panels and household electronics, regulation of packaging and further work on phasing out single use plastics.
Tennant’s One More Thing is a computer game called The Case of the Golden Idol in which the intrepid player explores crime scenes frozen in fantasy 18th Century England to solve a bunch of grizzly murders. What’s it got to do with climate and energy? Absolutely nothing! Loads of fun for our analytically minded listenership? You betcha.
Luke’s One More Thing is a 2019 paper he stumbled on and got distracted by, ‘Recalibrating climate prospects’ which includes Amory Lovins, a grandfather of the energy efficiency movement, as a lead author and sets out the case for stronger focus on demand management and energy efficiency paired with renewables in IAMs. Yep, it’s those pesky IAMs undervaluing energy efficiency again.
That’s all folks, see you next time! Please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
This week in our tenth episode (woot!) your intrepid hosts reconvene ENERGY CRISIS CORNER and oh boy there was no shortage of fodder for us to traverse. From the UK where gas reserves are low but the hubris is high and they’ll be capping energy bills and paying people to use less at peak times, to our French friends who’ve coined the best moniker for their efforts in La Sobriete Energetique (Energy Sobriety) campaign with voluntary measures to save 10% energy use. The debate is also running hot in the EU about how they will pay for Fit for 55, maybe CBAM proceeds! And how are things looking at home in Oz? Not much better we’re afraid. This week there was much discussion on just how bad energy prices are likely to get in the next little while. Yikes.
At this point we’d normally cast about for a silver lining but instead we spiralled into apocalyptic catastrophe and with a paper appropriately titled ‘Climate Endgame: Exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios’ brought to us by four horsemen Luke Kemp, Chi Xu, Joanna Depledge and Timothy Lenton and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS). These guys contend that facing a future of accelerating climate change while blind to worst-case scenarios is naive risk management at best and fatally foolish at worst. What did we make of it? Listen on!
Tennant’s One More Thing is a piece of 70s futurism called The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space by Gerard K. O’Neill, a Princeton professor who suggested the answer to the world’s industrial challenges was GIANT SPACE COLONIES that would build orbital solar power stations and beam energy back to Earth via microwaves. Jeff Bezos is a disciple, could you be one too? Well worth a look!
Frankie’s One More Thing was to celebrate the successful 2022 Energy Efficiency Summit. Your intrepid hosts worked on this in their day jobs and were excited to have Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy Jenny McAllister there to announce a National Energy Performance Strategy, veritable music to our ears. Failed to gatecrash the sesh? Never fear, you can watch it all here. You can also read the communique from hosting orgs and the Minister’s media release and speech. Special shout out to the crew at EEC for making the magic happen!
Luke’s One More Thing is a super article in the Economist, ‘The energy transition will be expensive, but not catastrophically so’. It draws an interesting analogy to the current energy transition from fossil gas to heat pumps that we could all take heart from in the transition the UK made from town gas to fossil gas. It can be done! We’ve done it before! Now where do I get my heat pump installer ticket.
That’s all folks, see you next time! Please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some red thread through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
This week your intrepid hosts recap some listener mail from friend of the pod, Dylan McConnell, who boldly contends that some of our critiques on IAMs could be appropriately directed closer to home at the ISP. Also Dylan earns mega bonus points by renaming the ISP as our very own energy system HEGELIAN DIALECTIC. If we called it that we might get even less focus on the process because shiny hegelian dialectic people. Hell Yes!
The paper we explored this time represents perhaps peak wonk in the just released Victorian Healthy Homes Program research findings. The program was designed to measure the impact of an energy efficiency and thermal comfort home upgrade on temperature, energy use, health and quality of life. A thousand homes of low-income and vulnerable Victorians were chosen for the study that demonstrated some compelling findings, including… LISTEN TO THE POD.
Tennant’s One More Thing was to spruik the 2022 Energy Efficiency Summit at which the many the opportunities for energy efficiency to accelerate our journey to net zero emissions will be discussed. Sound awesome? It will be! Want to come? You can! You can register to join online. Regretfully, the full version of Frankie’s incitement for you to storm the venue was edited out, not that that should be taken as a challenge to our dear listeners…;-)
Frankie’s One More Thing was to say a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the Green Building Council of Australia who turn 20 this year. So many talented and passionate people have passed through the GBCA over the years, creating a community of alumni whose influence on building a more sustainable built environment goes from strength to strength.
Frankie’s sneaky twofer was to remind us all that King Charles cares a bunch about climate change and even wrote a book about it. This book!
Luke’s One More Thing dangerously broke the mold of our pod and departed from climate I KNOW HOW OUTRAGEOUS to flag a particularly brilliant piece of pop culture in the new David Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream. Hard recommend from Mr. Menzel!
That’s all folks, see you next time! Please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some red twine through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at mailbag@letmesumup.net.
In this short bonus episode, your intrepid hosts make a series of increasingly aggressive pitches for the pod, and finally explain Frankie's official LMSU job title.
Remember to rate, review, like and subscribe 😉
We'll be back with a full episode next week!
Your intrepid hosts failed to start a flame war with friends of the pod over the relative merits of IAMs so we were forced to reconvene ENERGY CRISIS CORNER. And wowser, the past week has provided plenty of fodder there! We recap Russia’s brinkmanship on threatening to cut off gas supply to Europe altogether, triggering an emergency meeting of EU energy ministers last Friday at which several policy responses were discussed but nothing agreed. Will the EU move to put price caps on all imported gas? It’s looking likely but the ramifications will be far and wide and certainly bound to touch us here in Australia. Stay tuned as we continue to watch what comes out of a very tense period of negotiations amongst our European friends!
Our deep dive this week sees us consider a paper recently published in Nature Climate Change, “Determining the credibility of commitments in international climate policy” brought to us by David G. Victor, Marcel Lumkowsky, and Astrid Dannenberg. Attempting to assess the credibility of pledges made by countries in the Paris Agreement, they’ve surveyed 800+ climate “elites” with decades of experience to inform some analysis with some interesting conclusions - listen on folks to hear what we made of it!
Frankie’s One More Thing this week was the passing of the Climate Change Bill through the Australian parliament last Thursday, meaning we now have legislated targets for 43% emissions reduction by 2030 and Net Zero by 2050! Frankie happened to be at Parliament House that day to soak up the elation amongst those who managed the Bill’s passage, surely a turning point in Australia’s journey towards stronger climate action :-)
Tennant’s One More Thing was to flag the very important and live independent review of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) being led by former Chief Scientist Professor Ian Chubb. The panel led by Chubb is doing a short sharp period of public consultation until 26 September, so if ACCU integrity keeps you up at night dear listeners it’s time to get a move on and lodge a submission while you can! This review will maybe definitely most assuredly be the subject of a future pod.
Luke’s One More Thing was yet more good news in recapping the agreement of Building Ministers at their recent meeting on 26 August to adopt proposed increases to the minimum energy efficiency requirements for new homes in the National Construction Code. It’s been over a decade since these were last increased and these changes represent lots of hard work by public servants and advocates over an extended period of time. A time to celebrate this win and massive shout out to all involved!
That’s all folks, see you next time! Please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and email us your suggestions for papers to read at mailbag@letmesumup.net!
This week your intrepid hosts return some friendly fire from esteemed peer and friend of the pod Erwin Jackson! Despite Erwin’s commentary on the positive role IAMs have played aligning the finance sector around rallying support for a 1.5C scenario, one currently immuno-compromised T. Reed refused to de-escalate and doubled down on the critique. Frankie weighed in on guard rails and it all went south quickly. We await further commentary from Erwin and others to populate our newly minted IAM CRISIS CORNER section of the pod :-)
Our deep dive this week sees us wade into controversial waters to tackle the most talked about paper in town, the Commonwealth’s “Safeguard Mechanism Reforms consultation paper”, currently open for comment until Tuesday 20 September.
Helping us unpack the fraught history of this Steven Bradbury of climate policies and ‘last fire in the forest’ is a very very special guest: none other than the battle-hardened, climate politics guru of note, the inimitable Katharine Murphy! We were super chuffed and not a little starstruck that Katharine, political editor at Guardian Australia, took time out from her writing sabbatical (look out for her Quarterly Essay at the back end of this year) to talk all things Safeguard with us.
In the course of the pod we also flag another, related and ongoing policy review that will have implications for the Safeguard and is also not without a level of controversy: the independent review of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) being led by former Chief Scientist Professor Ian Chubb. The panel led by Chubb is yet to begin public consultation but that is due to kick off imminently so stay tuned!
Luke, Tennant and Frankie’s collective One More Thing for this week was appreciation to the marvelous Katharine Murphy for taking the time out to join this pod. We hope her writing sabbatical goes well and on the off chance you’re not already following her on socials, you can find her on twitter @murpharoo.
That’s all folks, see you next time! Please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and email us your suggestions for papers to read at mailbag@letmesumup.net!
This week your intrepid hosts cast their attention abroad to the historic passing of the Inflation Reduction Act in the US and the $370 Bn odd of investment into climate action it contains. Now just waiting for the stroke of Joe Biden’s many pens, this will be a relief for many Democrats seeking re-election in the upcoming midterms.
For our deep dive report we go FULL METAL WONK and attempt to average an orange, a picture of an apple and a mandarin-shaped eraser… no wait, that’s what Integrated Assessment Models do and underpin little-read things like the IPCC’s reports on climate mitigation and adaptation! We read climate economists of note Nicholas Stern, Joseph E. Stiglitz and Charlotte Taylor’s paper and critique of IAMs,“The Economics of Immense Risk, Urgent Action and Radical Change: Towards New Approaches to the Economics of Climate Change” published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Are these guys the Avengers to Nordhaus’ Thanos? You’ll have to listen to find out.
Luke’s One More Thing was a shout out and tribute to the Australian Energy Foundation (formerly Moreland Energy Foundation Limited) who have announced they are closing their doors after more than 20 years of working to improve everyday Australians’ lives through programs to improve home energy performance.
Frankie’s One More Thing is the anticipation of a decision by the Building Ministers Meeting coming up on 26 August on whether to adopt proposed increases to the minimum energy efficiency requirements for new homes in the National Construction Code. It’s been over a decade since these were last increased and there is lots of interest in seeing this get over the line.
Tennant’s One More Thing was to claim a win for the pod out of the recent Energy Ministers’ Meeting committing to a truckload of work, including what is effectively a supercharged ISP as part of the wide ranging National Energy Transformation partnership! See the full deets in their communique.
That’s all folks, see you next time! Please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and email us your suggestions for papers to read at mailbag@letmesumup.net!
This week your intrepid hosts braved some interstate travel craziness (the things we do for you) and came together IN 3D REAL LIFE AND EVERYTHING to bring you this pod from Wurundjeri land.
We have been loving the energy twitterati folks having at our ISP episode and in response to our follow up question “what would you want to see in a supercharged ISP?” we received plenty of excellent fodder from friends of the pod Emma, Tom Quinn, Craig Memery and more! A no-surprises tech scenario, a supercharged electrification/green hydrogen one as well as the fraught question of a just transition and how all this necessary infrastructure is to be paid for. Gulp.
Our truly hipster choice for this week’s pod was to eschew the boringly mainstream Victorian Gas Substitution Roadmap and instead dive into one of the reports that fed into it… Infrastructure Victoria’s report ‘Towards 2050: Gas Infrastructure in a Net Zero Emissions Economy’. Thank you to dear friend of the pod, Rob Murray-Leach for recommending the 190-page-report-disguised-as-half-that-size 😬. Love you Rob!
Frankie’s One More Thing was to reconvene GAS CRISIS CORNER and flag the truly grim situation that continues to develop in Europe as Gazprom announced they’d be lowering the flow of gas through Nordstrom 1 into Germany down to 20% capacity, prompting responses to limit heating and hot water use in pubic buildings to conserve gas reserves ahead of the European winter.
Tennant’s One More Thing was a speech given by Dr Steven Kennedy PSM, Secretary to the Treasury, on the Australian Public Service and Academia to the University of Sydney. Dr Kennedy chose to focus his reflections from his extensive career as a senior public servant on climate policy, and the importance of academia in providing unbiased advice and expertise on different mechanisms to drive action.
AND as an unexpected bonus, Tennant engaged in a rap poetry twitter-off with the aforementioned Rob Murray-Leach to summarise the energy crisis in rhyming couplets by reworking Boney M’s “Rasputin”. Who won? You decide!
Luke’s One More Thing was the incredibly exciting development of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s mandate being formally expanded to include energy efficiency and electrification! So uncontroversial was this change to ARENA’s regs there have been no objections or shenanigans in the Parliament (it might also have something to do with it not being bundled with other more contentious issues cough CCS cough as it was the last time this was attempted).
See you next time! Please keep tweeting your thoughts and suggestions for new papers to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic. Or drop us a note at mailbag@letmesumup.net!
And for those reading along at home, our next ep will be on “The Economics of Immense Risk, Urgent Action and Radical Change: Towards New Approaches to the Economics of Climate Change” by Nicholas Stern, Joseph E. Stiglitz and Charlotte Taylor, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
In this episode your intrepid hosts recap listener feedback say WHAAAAT! While basking in the glow of our dear listeners – proving both their existence AND interest in our musings – we:
- do a combined shout out to Laura Hamilton O'Hara at Living Future Institute of Australia for letting us know their Declare Material transparency label has recently expanded to include embodied carbon, as well as the team at NABERS and GBCA who are leading some important work for governments on embodied carbon in the buildings sector
- celebrate IRENA finally releasing Part I of their Hydrogen paper series (Trade outlook for 2050 and way forward). We remain mystified by the rationale for releasing Part I after Parts II and III, but absolutely claim credit for the release of Part I within 24 hrs of our hydrogen carriers episode going live!
- and while we're on claiming credit for things, in perhaps our last Gas Substitution Roadmap Corner for a bit, we can only assume our keen interest in this paper's whereabouts drove the Victorian Government's decision to release their roadmap ahead of the state election in November. While there are whispers of a major update next year, for now we will pore over the current version.
Want your hot take featured in the next round of follow up? You're in luck! Send your comments, questions (and reports you think we should cover on the show) to mailbag@letmesumup.net and we'll see what we can do.
With all family business settled, we turn our attention to our whizz bang report for this week….. AEMO's 2022 Integrated System Plan (ISP)! So much to unpack. Guess you’ll have to listen to find out what we think ;-)
Tennant's One More Thing (apart from a plea to Katharine Murphy and David Speers to plug the pod) is trilogues! Taking place in the EU (Council, Commission, Parliament) to resolve how to implement their ambitious Fit for 55 legislation, including expanding ETS (will it include transport and heating of buildings?) and Tennant’s favourite topic, the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) and whether hydrogen will be in or out. Complex? Yes. Fascinating? For sure!
Frankie's One More Thing is the hotly anticipated legislation that will give effect to the Federal Government’s target to reduce emissions by 43% on 2005 levels by 2030. Will the Greens vote in support? Will Labor build a floor not a ceiling? Will the future of coal and gas projects feature in the debate? See two longform interviews with Adam Bandt here and here for some insights and stay tuned!
Luke's One More Thing (apart from usurping Frankie’s with the Victorian Opposition’s gauntlet throw down to legislate a net zero by 2050 target for Victoria if elected) is a bit of shameless self promotion for his other work-related pod, First Fuel. For any listeners interested in Luke and Frankie’s German adventures on a recent energy efficiency delegation, you can hear Part I of the wrap on the delegation from Luke, Frankie and ‘rando ring-in’ Carlos Flores, Director of NABERS right here. (We love Carlos, a dear friend of the pod).
See you next time! Please keep tweeting your thoughts and suggestions for new papers to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic.
On our next episode we will be chatting about the other blockbuster government report on gas in Victoria, Infrastructure Victoria's Towards 2050: Gas infrastructure in a net-zero emissions economy. Didn't see that coming, did you? Blame this bloke.
In this timeless episode (recorded before Luke and Frankie departed for Europe on an energy efficiency delegation) your intrepid hosts crack out the crystal ball to make wild predictions on what those occupied in ENERGY CRISIS CORNER might be concerned with by the time the episode is live. Energy is still expensive! We are all in an Antopocalypse under the totalitarian Antonese regime! Wait, what? Exactly.
Our report for this week is………. Part II of IRENA's series on Global Hydrogen Trade to Meet the 1.5C Climate Goal, a Technology Review of Hydrogen Carriers! We still cannot find Part I (Trade outlook for 2050 and way forward) however since we recorded we have located Part III (Green Hydrogen Cost and Potential). As for Part I, a special prize for any listeners able to unearth this rare gem, which must exist in hardcopy format only under guarded surveillance by Jedi knights in a basement somewhere in IRENA HQ!
Tennant's One More Thing is a yet-to-be-available report (set your alarm clocks for March 2023 people) from the Victorian Government on what the state's 2035 emissions targets should be. It will consider the role of specific sectors and will be the first report from an Australian jurisdiction on targets post-2030. Tennant also happens to be helping write the report as a member of the expert panel, so this is must-read stuff! Or will be. In 2023.
Frankie's One More Thing is a start-up called Planet Protector Packaging, the brainchild of Joanne Howarth, out to disrupt the use of polystyrene for packaging by using wool from sheep bred commercially for meat and otherwise going to landfill. Kicking some serious circular economy goals.
Luke's One More Thing is the latest Australian Energy Emissions Monitor from Dr Hugh Saddler at ANU. TLDR is ongoing progress on renewables but little progress (from perhaps less recent policy focus?) on reducing gas and petroleum emissions.
See you next time! Please keep tweeting your thoughts and suggestions for new papers to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic.
And for those reading along at home, our next ep will be on AEMO's 2022 Integrated System Plan (ISP).
In this episode, your intrepid hosts reconvene ENERGY CRISIS CORNER where the landscape is hellish but the feeling between energy ministers is decidedly warm and fuzzy following their get together and commitment to a host of sensible things (at the time of recording, AEMO had not yet suspended the NEM wholesale spot market for the first time ever, wowsers). After Tennant laments a bad week for CBAM enthusiasts with stalled progress of legislation in the EU Parliament, we dive into the paper for this week which was….
The Voluntary Carbon Markets Initiative (VCMI) draft Claims Code of Practice!
Want to know whether that carbon neutral branded soap in the supermarket gets a gold, silver or bronze for their emissions reduction and offsetting efforts? Tune in to hear what your hosts award this claims code (mithril, aluminium and chocolate coin level recognition is also in the mix). Special shout out to one of our listeners, Joe Karten at Built, for suggesting we tackle this paper.
If you feel strongly about this draft claims code then don’t stop at podcast commentary, you can make submissions to VCMI until 12 August here.
Here is the initiative from the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market that will deal with the issues Frankie was really looking for in the claims code, due to be released in Q4 2022. And there is so much more to say. Will the podcast get a regular Carbon Accounting Chronicles segment we hear you ask? Only time will tell!
One More Thing
- Tennant’s One More Thing is an encore with the Victorian Gas Substitution Roadmap - never more timely, though it seems we may have to wait until after Victoria’s state election in November to get all the juicy detail.
- Frankie’s One More Thing was a sneaky twofer with the EU Parliament voting in support of zero emissions cars and light utility vehicles by 2035, and the leader of the German social democrats floating some bold ideas to keep fuel costs down - autobahn speed limit anyone?
- Luke’s One More Thing is ClimateWorks’ excellent, locally produced complement to the VCMI claims code, Corporate climate action for 1.5 degrees: Best practice for Australian company net zero commitments
Please keep tweeting your thoughts and suggestions for new papers to us at @LukeMenzel @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic.
Our Next Paper
Want to read along with the team? On our next episode we'll be chatting about the International Renewable Energy Agency's fascinating technology review of hydrogen carriers, which focuses on how we transport those promising but pesky hydrogen molecules around.
Our very first episode of Let Me Sum Up is here and so is Australia's energy apocalypse (remember, correlation is not causation, folks). Your intrepid hosts open by surveying the challenging conditions facing households, businesses and policymakers as electricity and gas prices hit historic highs.
After a brief detour into just how late to the ball 'energy efficiency Cinderella' can afford to be, they unpack the podcast's very first report, drum roll pleeeeease….
The 'Industry' chapter of 'Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change' report from Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report!
And what else can't we stop thinking about?
Tennant's One More Thing is the hotly anticipated 'Victorian Gas Substitution Roadmap', due for final release... well... maybe next year?
Frankie's One More Thing is Renovate Europe, a successful political communications campaign behind the push to reduce the energy demand of the EU's building stock by 80% by 2050.
Luke's One More Thing is REPowerEU, the EU's just released plan to rapidly reduce dependence on Russian fossil fuels and fast forward the energy transition.
See you in two weeks!
Welcome to the trailer for Let Me Sum Up, your regular deep dive on recent reports on climate and energy.
Every fortnight self professed energy and climate wonks Frankie Muskovic, Tennant Reed and Luke Menzel will read a report on climate and energy, then talk about it. Then they'll talk about other stuff, likely (but not always) energy and climate related.
If you have comments – or suggestions for reports to cover on the show – you can find our intrepid hosts on Twitter:
- Tennant is @TennantReed
- Frankie is @FrankieMuskovic
- Luke is @lukemenzel
Learn more about the show at letmesumup.net and stay tuned for Episode 1, dropping next week!