Let Me Sum Up

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 PaperNew Dork Times: Chubb/Safeguard Special Double Report Report SpecialSafe Guard With A VengeanceOur main paperThe 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 thingsTennant'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 paperLeaving 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 thingsTennant'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 paperWhen 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 thingsFrankie'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 paperIn 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 thingsAlison'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.

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 topicIt 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 thingsTennant'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/letmesumupAnd 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 PaperWe 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 paperHaving 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 thingsTennant'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 paperIn 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 thingsTennant'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 paperIt'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 thingsTennant'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 to come 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 paperThis 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 thingsTennant'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 Gabrielle 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 paperYour 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 thingsTennant'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 NotesSupport 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 paperYour 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 thingsLuke 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

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 paperHaving 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 thingsLuke'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 paperAndrew 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

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 paperWe 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 thingsTennant'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

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 paperThe 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 thingsTennant'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 paperThe 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 thingsLuke'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 paperThis 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 thingsTennant'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 paperAnd 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 thingsLuke'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 paperThis 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 thingsTennant'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 paperLast 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 thingsTennant'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 paperA 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 thingsTennant'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 paperThe 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 thingsTennant'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/LetMeSumUpWe 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/LetMeSumUpAnd 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 paperNuclear 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 thingsTennant'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 thingsTennant'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 thingsAlison'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 thingsAlison'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 FortressThe ultimate prediction science of Psychohistory in Isaac Asimov's Foundation novelsOne more thingsAlison'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”. 

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 isThis 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.