Let Me Sum Up

• Once You Start Down The Wood Side, Forever Will It Dominate Your Destiny

  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 courseThis 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 thingsTennant’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 toletmesumup.netto support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!

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  1:29:42

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  1:29:42
• Climate Hegemon: Gotta Catch Em All (Chinazard, Mimik-EU, Trumptwo)

  ‘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 courseIt’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 thingsTennant’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 toletmesumup.netto support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!

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  1:11:37

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  1:11:37
• Like Sands Through The Hourglass, So Are The NEM Reviews Of Our Lives

  ‘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 courseI’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 thingsTennant’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 toletmesumup.netto support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!

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  1:39:22

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• Hey Big Spender, Blend A Little SAF For Me (Low Carbon, So Refined)

  ‘More Sufficiency Now!’ tees - for a sufficiently limited time onlyThere 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 courseRefined 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 thingsTennant’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 toletmesumup.netto support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!

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  1:17:56

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  1:17:56
• Frankie My Dear, I Don’t Give A Damn (About GPGs not making Taxonomy v1.0)

  ‘More Sufficiency Now!’ tees - for a limited time onlyInspired 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 courseThis 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 thingsFrankie’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 toletmesumup.netto support us on Patreon, procure sufficiency themed merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!

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  1:25:31

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