Let Me Sum Up

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 pavi...

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 w...

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 Tennan...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 won...

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 thi...

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...

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 mig...

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 o...

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...

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 o...

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...

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...

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 des...

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 cl...

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 diffe...

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...

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...

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 weir...

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-n...

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 t...