The CEFC was created to catalyse increased investment in lowering emissions. In our first six years this has required a clear focus on establishing and subsequently deepening effective relationships with investors, developers, business, regulators and the community. We see this as a critical and ongoing endeavour, made all the more important because of the scale of the challenge of Australia’s transition to lower emissions.

In December 2018, an independent statutory review of the CEFC Act found that the CEFC had succeeded in its statutory objective of facilitating the flows of finance into the clean energy sector, with the CEFC’s investments successfully enabling transactions and projects that would not have otherwise proceeded, attracting substantial private co-investment. The statutory review was conducted by Deloitte and tabled in Parliament on 14 December 2018.

During the year, we took market soundings to assess stakeholder perceptions about the organisation and the effectiveness of CEFC effectiveness of external engagement activities. We also looked to identify areas that might benefit from a stronger focus as we seek to tackle new areas of investment which have yet to achieve support from mainstream investors.

We were heartened by the market response to our activities, including market perceptions that the CEFC is well regarded as a specialist investor and is seen to be playing an important market development role alongside other investors.

We also appreciated market interest in the CEFC looking more broadly beyond individual transactions to increase the market impact of our activities, including through stronger market engagement, our continued contribution to research and thought leadership, and the provision of practical insights about the emissions impacts of our investments. We are increasing our efforts in this area. See Figure 18.

The knowledge, expertise and experience of the CEFC provides benefit to the market, in that it builds market capability with respect to financing clean energy projects.

Statutory Review of the CEFC
October 2018

Figure 18: Shaping the clean energy market: CEFC investment insights

CEFC Investment Insights:
Clean energy and commercial property Developed with Quintessential Equity, a report into the clean energy transformation of Geelong’s iconic 1 Malop Street development.