Give the gift of LMSU BoCo to your loved ones!

In the awkward position of forgetting a Christmas gift for your beloved? Want to set your climate conscious friends up for success in 2026? Look no further than a one year subscription to LMSU’s Patreon which gets you bonus, subscriber-only episodes - unpacking the sector decarbonisation plans with special guests - and all manner of additional absolute silliness, like our recent bonus episode of Luke, Tennant and Frankie’s Dungeons & Dragons adventure. Hop to it!

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The 2025 Wonky Award

It’s that time of the year when your intrepid hosts dole out the Wonky award for our favourite paper of the year! We revive the recurring argument about the criteria for the award and don’t let the fact that two of our three finalists weren’t even papers stop us. Our finalists and highly commended for 2025 are:

• ‘Abundance’ by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
• ‘Quarterly Essay 99: Woodside Versus The Planet’ by Marianne Wilkinson
• ‘The New Energy Trade: Harnessing Australian renewables for global development’ by Reuben Finighan at The Superpower Institute.

While there was no denying the zeitgeisty vibe impact of Abundance on the political discourse in Australia and all-round appreciation for Marianne Wilkinson’s thoughtful provocation on the influence of gas giant Woodside, your intrepid hosts all rallied around the seminal ‘New Energy Trade’ paper from the Superpower Institute as having a clear-eyed vision and significant and ongoing impact on policy thinking around Australia’s green export potential. Bravo to Reuben Finighan and colleagues at TSI for winning the 2025 Wonky Award! A custom meme will find its way to your socials in the not-too-distant future!

Holiday Movie Special

We’ve always wondered how many of our eagle-eyed Summerupperers got the movie reference in our podcast title ‘Let Me Sum Up’, taken from none other than the iconic, swashbuckling fantasy fairy tale "The Princess Bride" - so it was INCONCEIVABLE that we choose any other movie for our 2025 Holiday Special. From the origin story around choosing the pod name (including the names that didn’t make the cut), how this movie has influenced us and where we saw it first, to our favourite moments from an all-star cast and the endless choice of banger quotes, we go long! Such is our mutual love for this movie, there was no containing the joy of this Holiday Special. 

One more things

Tennant’s One More Thing is: a bit of light holiday reading with the equally zeitgeisty and current The Secret History by Procopius? You tell us which current Australian political figure comes to mind when you hear Tennant’s quote from the book.

Frankie’s One More Thing is: a very late to the party endorsement for Stranger Things on Netflix, which she is just getting around to watching. Better late than never!

Luke’s One More Thing is: Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another which is nothing short of masterpiece and still showing in the odd cinema. LMSU says – see it on the big screen.

And that’s it until the New Year, Summerupperers. Don’t forget we are convening a summer book club, diving into ‘Existential Politics: Why Global Climate Institutions Are Failing And How To Fix Them’ by Jessica F. Green, and will be recording an episode to discuss sometime in January together with sometime co-host Alison Reeve. 

And don’t forget there is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to

letmesumup.net

to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!

P.S. don't big shout out to our friends at The NEMchat Singers, who have a proud tradition of summing  the energy year in song. We hope you enjoy one of their 2025 contributions at the end of this episode, and be sure to check out the other here! 

Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for a sector plan BoCo bonanza!  

All aboard folks! Team LMSU is continuing our BoCo odyssey, adventuring through each of the six sector decarbonisation plans. AND we’re bringing friends! That’s right, we’re calling in even nerdier reinforcements. This week, we’ll be joined by Ag sector knower Steve Hatfield-Dodds to unpack the Agriculture and Land Sector Plan. And if somehow that isn’t temptation enough for you crazy climate cats, we can reveal that episode two of our dungeons and dragons odyssey is incoming in time for the Christmas listening of Super Summerupperers... so hop to it!

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Main topic(s)

While we have been occupied with Conferences of Parties, developments in Australian energy and climate policy have been coming thick and fast. So what is a summing up podcast with one substantive episode left before the end of the year to do? Why, a demolition derby of All The Things, of course! 

Buckle up, and tune in for:

• Klimate Krampus, AKA the Coalition’s abandonment of a net zero by 2050 target (to really get the vibe of the thing, we encourage a close read of the Liberal and National positions, such as they are )
• Climate Christmas, specifically the Albanese Government’s 2025 Climate Statement, the Climate Change Authority’s 2025 Annual Progress Report and DCCEEW’s 2025 Emissions Projections.
• Energy Eisteddfod, featuring
  • AEMO’s Draft 2026 Integrated System Plan
  • CSIRO’s Draft 2025-26 GenCost Report
  • AEMO’s 2025 Transition Plan for System Security
  • Tim Nelson and friends' NEM Review final report
  • Ministers various’ ECMC Communique
  • Gas Market Review rumblings and reservation speculation
  • Home Battery Program recharged
  • Electric Car Discount reviewed
• And for dessert, Environment Efflorescence...
  • EPBC reforms passed!

One more things

Frankie’s One More Thing is – jumping on a favourite hobby horse, the imperative to tackle methane emissions, noting promising activity in NSW that could help build national momentum!

Tennant’s One More Thing is – a big spruik for our 2025 Wonky Awards! Yes that’s right, we are once again surveying the papers we covered on the podcast over the last 12 months and picking our favourite! But this year we are inviting you, dear summerupperers, to stick your oar in – leave us a voice note and tell us which paper should reign supreme!

Luke’s One More Thing is – the announcement of the first annual LMSU summer book club! Because this podcast clearly doesn't have enough corners, angles and side hustles already, Tennant, Frankie, Luke and Alison will be curling up with a climate themed read over summer and once we’ve read it, we'll chat about it on a special summer episode of the pod for release sometime in January. And what is our inaugural read for book club? Why it is Existential Politics: Why Global Climate Institutions Are Failing and How to Fix Them by Jessica F Green. Available on Kindle for a surprisingly high price! Or for a free taster, hear Jessica chat about the book on the Shift Key podcast!

Plus in special bonus spruiking, Frankie highlights the upcoming LMSU Holiday Special, in which we watch a movie and talk about it. And this year we’re changing things up – we are going to talk about a classic movie that we have heavily referenced on LMSU! But obviously it is rich pickings, so which one? Well that is up to you! Vote in our handy dandy poll now!

That was a lot. But that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to

letmesumup.net

to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!

We conclude our Quokka of 2025 COP episodes by sitting down Australia's Climate and Energy Minister – and incoming COP President of Negotiations – Chris Bowen! 

Referenced in this episode (in order of importance):

Luke's COP bid parody song

Chris' summer reading recommendation

Türkiye-Australia Partnership Modalities

—

And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to

letmesumup.net

to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!

All aboard folks! Team LMSU is continuing our BoCo odyssey, adventuring through each of the six sector decarbonisation plans. AND we’re bringing friends! That’s right, we’re calling in even nerdier reinforcements and experts to join us as we venture on. We're four in, two to go and luminaries helping us sum up so far include Dylan McConnell, Davina Rooney, Helen Rowe and Alison Reeve! And if somehow that isn’t temptation enough for you crazy climate cats, the only way you’ll see evidence of Luke, Tennant and Frankie’s cosplay efforts at our recent Chaos Trivia event is by subscribing on Patreon, so hop to it!

--

We make our best attempt to sum up all the thrills and spills of week two of COP30, and boy there were some twists in the tale: a resolution to Australia’s bid to host COP31 that no-one had on their bingo card; literal conflagrations in the COP30 pavilions; and arguably the most dramatic closing plenary of any COP, ever.

—

And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to

letmesumup.net

to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!

All aboard folks! Team LMSU is continuing our BoCo odyssey, adventuring through each of the six sector decarbonisation plans. AND we’re bringing friends! That’s right, we’re calling in even nerdier reinforcements and experts to join us as we venture on. We're four in, two to go and luminaries helping us sum up so far include Dylan McConnell, Davina Rooney, Helen Rowe and Alison Reeve! And if somehow that isn’t temptation enough for you crazy climate cats, the only way you’ll see evidence of Luke, Tennant and Frankie’s cosplay efforts at our recent Chaos Trivia event is by subscribing on Patreon, so hop to it!

--

We woke up expecting to record an episode about how to run a successful COP, but news reports suggested Australia may not get to host a COP at all! So ably assisted by Alex Scott – longstanding COP maven and current Senior Associate for Climate Diplomacy at the climate think tank ECCO – we talk a bit about the bid and ways for Australia to maintain a leadership position in a scenario in which it doesn't hold the presidency, the latest from the negotiations on the Big Four™️, and take some live questions from the audience.

And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to

letmesumup.net

to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!

All aboard folks! Team LMSU is continuing our BoCo odyssey, adventuring through each of the six sector decarbonisation plans. AND we’re bringing friends! That’s right, we’re calling in even nerdier reinforcements and experts to join us as we venture on. We're four in, two to go and luminaries helping us sum up so far include Dylan McConnell, Davina Rooney, Helen Rowe and Alison Reeve! And if somehow that isn’t temptation enough for you crazy climate cats, the only way you’ll see evidence of Luke, Tennant and Frankie’s cosplay efforts at our recent Chaos Trivia event is by subscribing on Patreon, so hop to it!

--

So we're in Belém, Brazil for COP30 where the weather is humid, the caipirinhas are delicious, the NDCs are insufficient and the action agenda is extensive! Thats right folks, we're summing up all the colour and movement of week one, with a particular focus on the procedural gambit of the Brazilian Presidency that saw the 'Big Four' issues (what a pithy coinage that is, hey T?) that threatened to bog down agreement on the negotiating agenda allocated to their own special “informal backroom consultations”, immediately rendering said consultations far more interesting that the primary negotiations! 

Featuring: special guest co-host Josh Gabbatiss from Carbon Brief! Also featuring: perhaps our final (we feverishly hope so) round of COP31 host speculation!

And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to

letmesumup.net

to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!

Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for a sector plan BoCo bonanza!  

All aboard folks! Team LMSU is continuing our BoCo odyssey, adventuring through each of the six sector decarbonisation plans. AND we’re bringing friends! That’s right, we’re calling in even nerdier reinforcements and experts to join us as we venture on. This week, we’ll be joined by sometime co-host Alison Reeve from the Grattan Institute to unpack the Industry sector plan. And if somehow that isn’t temptation enough for you crazy climate cats, the only way you’ll see evidence of Luke, Tennant and Frankie’s cosplay efforts at our recent Chaos Trivia event is by subscribing, so hop to it!

—

With COP30 in Belem, Brazil only days away, your intrepid hosts dive into recent remarks from UN Secretary General, António Guterres, widely reported as ‘the world has missed 1.5C’, the reality being much more nuanced commentary from this climate champion as he enters his final year as Secretary General. Undoubtedly, it feels like a threshold moment as he acknowledges the world has breached 1.5C. We are now in the realm of overshoot, but the longer term of objective of stabilising temperature increases to 1.5C is still possible - keeping 1.5 alive - but only if we redouble efforts to focus on decarbonisation here and now, and flags the need to ramp up efforts on negative emissions. Significant remarks and food for thought on the real and difficult choices ahead!

Our main course

Is it 1965 or is what’s old new once again folks? Your intrepid hosts wade into the technical, controversial, futuristic yet bafflingly bootstrapped proposition that is geoengineering - shooting stuff into the sky and blocking out some sunlight, cooling the earth’s surface. What could possibly go wrong?! Well, this paper, ‘Engineering and logistical concerns add practical limitations to stratospheric aerosol injection strategies’ published in Nature and authored by Miranda Hack, V. Faye McNeill, Dan Steingart and Gernot Wagner, has some thoughts! Engineering challenges? Yes! Cost? What better use of diamond dust could there be! Governance issues? A few! What is incredibly clear from reading this paper is that there are no easy decisions when it comes to the need to consider negative emissions technologies or other novel ways of moderating temperature increases. Could it be that on closer inquiry, we should just focus on getting on with decarbonising, or is more research required?

One more things

Tennant’s One More Thing is: more ranting about data centres! Tennant has questions about the ultimate viability of the eyewatering numbers of speculative capacity in new data centre growth, as well as the equally worrying implications for viability coal closures if much of this does come to pass. Bubble or not, we’ll find out soon enough!

Frankie’s One More Thing is: a massive shout out and thanks to 150 fabulous folk that fronted up to Chaos Trivia last week in Melbourne, including ultimate winners, No One Likes A Gentailer. Props to our co-hosts Currently Speaking, our MC extraordinaire Mark Spencer and The NEMChat Singers who added colour, movement and grooves to the chaos! With all proceeds going to the brilliant First Nations Clean Energy Network there was much to love.  

Luke’s One More Thing is: a definitely-not-resentful readout of the paper he really wanted us to read this episode, IRENA’s ‘Delivering on the UAE Consensus: Tracking progress toward tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling energy efficiency by 2030.’ TL;DR is we’re going gangbusters on solar but woeful progress on energy efficiency. More to do!

And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to

letmesumup.net

to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!

Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for a sector plan BoCo bonanza!  

All aboard folks! Team LMSU is continuing our BoCo odyssey, adventuring through each of the six sector decarbonisation plans. AND we’re bringing friends! That’s right, we’re calling in even nerdier reinforcements and experts to join us as we venture on. This week, we’ll be joined by Helen Rowe from Climateworks to talk transport and infrastructure.

—

With a promise to provide guidance on the next five years ‘and beyond’ your intrepid hosts digested the Queensland Government Energy Roadmap 2025. It provides a major reset in some respects with continuity in others. Grabbing the headlines was the telegraphed decision to run government-owned coal assets to end of technical life but much detail still ‘TBC’ when it comes to how decisions on coal will be made.Transmission is getting a big overhaul, renewables still gonna be big but maybe not so much on the wind front. More questions raised than answered here for now as Luke is left pondering the wisdom of scrapping a bicameral parliament in the great northern state!

Our main course

With a tantalising title of ‘Bills Down, Emissions Down: A practical path to net zero electricity’ your intrepid hosts are having what the Grattan Institute is serving! A timely provocation from Alison Reeve, Tony Wood, Dominic Jones and Ben Jefferson on the value - and they argue necessity - of reinstating a price on carbon in the electricity sector. The world has changed since the last time carbon pricing was discussed in the energy sector and the folks from Grattan argue the Safeguard Mechanism presents a ready made vehicle to get the job done. And they don’t forget to remind us of earlier work in their report Climate Phoenix that shows how the Safeguard could evolve into a broader emissions trading scheme, Much food for thought ahead of the 2026-27 Safeguard review!

One more things

Tennant’s One More Thing is: his appearance at an event hosted by the University of Adelaide, festively titled, ‘Livin La Vida BoCA’! No guesses as to what that was about: a whisper of chat about border carbon adjustments and our man Mr Reed manifests!

Frankie’s One More Thing is: a frustrating one-year delay to the vote by the International Maritime Organisation on the adoption of an emissions levy on shipping, following concerted lobbying from the Trump administration.

Luke’s One More Thing is: the long awaited and celebrated launch of the Commercial Building Disclosure Roadmap! *Finally* After previous reviews gathered dust on shelves, we finally have a plan for expanding use of Australia’s globally leading NABERS rating scheme in disclosing the nergy performance of more building types. Huzzah!

And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to

letmesumup.net

to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!

Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for a sector plan BoCo bonanza!  

All aboard folks! Team LMSU is embarking on a BoCo odyssey over the the next couple of months, adventuring through each of the six sector decarbonisation plans. AND we’re bringing friends! That’s right, we’re calling in even nerdier reinforcements and experts to join us as we venture on. For our first deep dive, The Planned and the Penurious (Energy and Electricity Sector Plan), we were joined by Energy wizard Dylan McConnell! Our second outing, 2 Planned: 2 Penurious (Built Environment), will feature buildings maven Davina Rooney!

—

While it’s no Planned and the Penurious, your intrepid hosts have been following the final laps of the NDC Grand Prix as a flurry of countries have raced (?) to lodge their 2035 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. China’s commitment to cut emissions 7–10% below peak levels by 2035 is dissected: an under promise, over deliver scenario? Almost certainly based on their track record. India is progressing through the pack, Europe stuck in the pit lane with internal negotiations, the US is doing doughnuts in the car park, and what on earth do we make of the corner-cutting of Russia’s retrograde move? And what about the two-thirds of countries still in the garage that haven't even gotten around to submitting a climate pledge yet? Is this Trump Administration dirty pool? Luke thinks maybe, Tennant is sceptical, but it certainly makes for an interesting COP and raises questions about the Paris Agreement’s “ratchet” mechanism and the consequences (or lack thereof) for backsliding or just ghosting the party altogether. We commend you to Climate Resource’s NDC country snapshots as a handy dandy resource!

Our main course

One of your intrepid hosts may have described reading the recently published National Climate Risk Assessment as ‘eating our climate risk vegetables’ given the dense and confronting nature of this 250+ page report. But jokes aside, team LMSU wanted to shine a spotlight and give our listeners a sense of the breadth and depth of this significant piece of work from Australia’s Climate Service: fifty six nationally significant climate risks across eight key functional systems, with seven additional risks highlighted for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Eleven risks receive deeper analysis, assessed across three warming scenarios (1.5°C, 2°C, 3°C) and three time horizons (2025, 2050, 2090). While your intrepid hosts read the whole thing cover to cover, we reckon it’s designed as a more modular report and for those interested, we suggest reading the executive summary and use the table of contents to navigate to areas of interest. 

This paper reaffirmed the ‘why’ many of us are working in climate and energy and team LMSU is thinking of all you Summerupperers out there, more power to your arms!

One more things

Tennant’s One More Thing is: a book on climate change and energy transition, “Clearing the Air” by Hannah Ritchie. Simple and snappy answers to the many and diverse questions people have on climate,Tennant declares lucid, reasonable and a goodun!

Frankie’s One More Thing is: a plug for the upcoming Investor Group on Climate Change Summit 2025, coming up in Sydney on October 16-17 and featuring eminences such as Al Gore and not one, not two, but ALL THREE hosts of LMSU!

Luke’s One More Thing is: some listener mail from friend of the pod Purdie Bowden who had some thoughts on comments made by Alison Reeve on a previous episode about expertise not being valued in the public service. She’s advocating for an overhaul of APS recruitment practices and progression to value specialist skill sets, support public servants to upskill, allow cross pollination between public and private sectors and lots more very sensible excellent suggestions. Hear, hear!

And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to

letmesumup.net

to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!

Time is running out to get your tickets for Chaos Trivia! 

Team LMSU is joining forces with the fabulous folks from Currently Speaking for a blockbuster crossover event, with special guests, the NEMchat Singers. Chaos Trivia is set for the first night of the All Energy Conference on Wednesday 29 October in Melbourne, and as predicted, tickets are selling like hotcakes with only a few left! There will be trivia! Role playing? Musical interludes! Food! Drinks! And Tennant is still committed to some wizard cosplay! All proceeds go to the First Nations Clean Energy Network so - RUN, don’t walk and snag tix for you or a whole trivia team.

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Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a target! Your intrepid hosts reflect on the many and varied reactions to the slick and stage managed birthing of the Climate Change Authority’s advice on a 2035 target and the Government’s acceptance of their advice to adopt a target of 62-70% emissions reduction on 2005 levels by 2035. 

Simultaneously declared “Economy wrecking” (Opposition), “Weak and disappointing” (Greens) and “The sweet spot” (Prime Minister Albanese), it looks like business groups broadly land in the “benign toleration” camp and environment groups unhappy with the bottom end of the range. What do we reckon? The real debate starts now on the level of ambition needed in the policies to get to the top of the range—especially since current policies only get us to about 51% by 2035.

Looking for fodder for your own opinion? Check out the op-eds penned by Luke and Adam Morton, and Adam's conversation with CCA Chair Matt Kean.

Our main course

It wasn’t just the targets the Government served up last week that had your intrepid hosts salivating at the degustation menu of climate policy offerings to sample. Treasury modelling, NDCs, sector plans, OH MY! 

But y’all know the LMSU crew can’t resist the sweet tantalising temptation of a seriously nerdy modelling exercise and so it was decided - there was never really any question - to the Treasury buffet we go! With three scenarios to unpack, a friendship of climate models used - TIM, MIRA, EMM, ALEX, anyone? There was a lot to digest in here! 

Eye watering economic upsides for green exports, signalling on declining fossil fuel exports, the cost of delay and some seriously refreshing honesty about limitations of modelling, there was something for everyone here and some significant foundations being laid for the future debate of climate policy in Australia.

One more things

Tennant’s One More Thing is: a fun Well Actually post, “Why every Sankey diagram you’ve ever seen is wrong” by Michael Liebreich

Frankie’s One More Thing is: a shout out from Marian Wilkinson in response to our recent episode on her Quarterly Essay on Woodside, saying she wanted to provoke a broader discussion on the influence of large companies like Woodside on federal and state politics and local communities. Love your work Marian!

Luke’s One More Thing is: a plug for his other podcast, First Fuel, which features his recent interview with Dr. Saul Griffith at the Energy in WA conference in which Saul predicts the economics of electrification will spur a rapid decline in gas exports and urged a pivot to clean commodities.

And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to

letmesumup.net

to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!