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    Carbon pricing

    Today

    Silva Capital founder and co-managing director Raphael Wood (foreground) with (L to R)  investment director Max Butler, co-managing director Brad Mytton and investment director Roger Cameron in Centennial Park, Sydney. Silva Capital is launching a high integrity carbon fund. Photo: Kate Geraghty

    BHP, Rio and Qantas back $250m carbon fund to beef up emission offsets

    The fund is being run by Silva Capital, itself a joint venture of agriculture-focused private capital investor ROC Capital and C6 Investment Management.

    • Ben Potter
    BHP chief executive Mike Henry   has called for a “comprehensive competitive agenda”.

    Union iron ore claim poses risks for green superpower hopes

    Let’s hope for the sake of Australia’s energy transition that we don’t return to the bad old days of industrial disruption in the Pilbara.

    • The AFR View

    July

    Jarden head of commodities Nigel Brunel is set to head up Marex Group’s new office in Auckland.

    Marex raids Jarden’s carbon trading business, opens NZ office

    The Nasdaq-listed firm has snared Jarden rainmaker Nigel Brunel and a swathe of the Kiwi investment bank’s carbon trading team.

    • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
    A sheep and cattle farm north of Auckland where the owner is planting trees to earn carbon credits.

    This investor is slimming down its stake in Blackstone-backed Xpansiv

    The carbon trading platform counts some heavyweight backers including the private equity giant and Macquarie. But Perennial is selling down its investment.

    • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

    New tools democratise greenhouse gas management

    A digital marketplace for companies with smaller carbon footprints to buy offsets has taken out the Technology category.

    • Alexandra Cain
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    June

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    Agriculture wins carbon price reprieve in New Zealand

    Farmers had protested against previous proposals to impose a regulated price on methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions from late 2025.

    • Tracy Withers

    May

    There is a case for imposing a levy on carbon emissions.

    A carbon tax and dividend scheme could be the answer

    Readers’ letters on the pressing need for a carbon tax; why we shouldn’t fear AI; in defence of mortgage brokers; and the reality of climate change.

    Former Hawke Labor government economist Ross Garnaut estimates if Julia Gillard’s emissions trading scheme was still in place, it would now be raising about $70 billion a year, based on the European carbon price.

    Taxpayers are poorer without a carbon tax

    Instead of imposing a carbon levy on polluters to fund big personal income tax cuts, governments are gambling taxpayer money on climate and energy projects.

    • John Kehoe
    Withcott Seedlings has more than 22 ha of igloo and shade netting nursery space.

    Rest Super-backed Cibus to push into carbon farming and robotics

    Cibus Capital will make a big push into regenerative farming and will use the latest robotics to expand one of the country’s biggest seedling growers.

    • Larry Schlesinger
    Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher and Shell Australia chair Cecile Wake at the Australian Energy Producers’ conference in Perth.

    Subsidy wars: Carbon capture cost adds up for fertiliser maker

    Carbon capture and storage would add 50 per cent to the cost of producing ammonia in the Pilbara, making it uneconomic without further government support.

    • Ben Potter

    Critics wrong about our clean energy ‘superpower’ plan picking winners

    We share concerns about arbitrary government intervention, but our carbon pricing model is designed to minimise those risks.

    • Ross Garnaut and Rod Sims
    While all countries will need to cut greenhouse gas emissions if the world is to limit global warming, many of the poorest are struggling with ever-stretched budgets.

    The $13.6 trillion question: how do we pay for the green transition?

    The private sector will have to provide about 70 per cent of climate finance globally, and the heat is building on governments to deliver policies that do that.

    • Attracta Mooney
    Xpansiv CEO John Melby.

    Blackstone-backed Xpansiv considers new cash call

    Early soundings are said to be pegged at a 30 per cent discount to the last valuation. The identity of the seller has not been disclosed.

    • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

    April

    Sequoia Lewien holds a mycorrhizal fungi extracted from soils in the east Otway region of Victoria.

    Why Mike Cannon-Brookes invested in this mushroom

    A tree-planting boom is required to get the world to net-zero, and the billionaire is betting mushrooms and fungi will be a crucial enabler

    • Peter Ker and Lap Phan
    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Manildra Group’s Shoalhaven Starches flour mill – recipient of a $44.5m grant – as opposition leader during the 2022 election.

    Australia’s richest firms get $331m in grants to reduce emissions

    The government has doled out $331 million to firms including Rio Tinto, Wesfarmers, Swiss giant Glencore and Rich Lister Dick Honan’s Manildra for decarbonisation projects.

    • Ben Potter
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    Australia can prosper under international carbon prices

    The EU’s carbon border tax will create new opportunities for this country but only if the Australian government invests strategically in the right industries.

    • Ingrid Burfurd
    Solar farms are becoming more common in the Pilbara iron ore region.

    BHP tied to gas until 2053 as power need swells on electric fleet

    Decarbonisation of Australia’s biggest export industry will require almost seven times more power and BHP wants gas to play a role until at least 2053.

    • Peter Ker
    “The nature repair task is absolutely enormous, and so is the carbon challenge,” says Ken Henry.

    Henry demands billions for nature repair market

    The economist wants a public fund to spur corporate involvement in “nature-positive” land protection.

    • Jacob Greber
    General Manager Costa Tsiolkas at Redbank Power Station in Warkworth, NSW.

    Can one of our dirtiest coal plants reap a green bonanza?

    Verdant Earth has lofty ambitions to turn the moribund Redbank into a major clean energy precinct using biomass. Environmentalists are still unhappy.

    • Ben Potter

    March

    Why BHP’s nickel struggles to match Indonesia’s

    A large green premium would be needed to put integrated Australian nickel producers like BHP on par with Indonesian rivals.

    • Peter Ker and Elouise Fowler