Thursday, 23 July 2026

The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), with support from Energiva Ventures, convened a virtual closed-door roundtable on July 13, 2026, titled "Charting the India-Australia critical minerals partnership".

According to IEEFA, a dedicated Critical Minerals Corridor between Australia and India was announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Australia.

Participants recommended that Indian companies provide greater clarity on future demand for minerals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and rare earths through long-term offtake arrangements, according to IEEFA.

The roundtable proposed linking Australian scaling of lithium hydroxide and lithium oxide processing with Indian development of cathode active materials and battery manufacturing.

IEEFA reported that the International Coal Ventures Limited (ICVL) model was cited as a potential precedent for pooling capital from multiple Indian entities to acquire strategic overseas critical mineral assets, with KABIL potentially playing a coordinating role.

Greece could allow balcony solar panels rated up to 800 W for the first time, under reforms floated by the country's Ministry of Environment and Energy, pv magazine reported.

The draft rules bar these balcony systems from feeding power back into the grid, according to pv magazine, and set conditions meant to shield the grid from disturbance.

A parallel proposal in the same consultation would clear the way for standalone home battery storage, limited strictly to self-consumption, pv magazine reported.

Greece has brought more than 37,400 self-consumption systems online since 2020, adding up to 1,070 MW, according to pv magazine.

New solar additions reached about 1.9 GW in 2025, lifting the national total to roughly 11.5 GW, pv magazine reported.

Nearly 4,000 Tennesseans criticized the Tennessee Valley Authority's energy plan as short-sighted and over reliant on gas, according to CleanTechnica.

The Sierra Club submitted 3,669 comments on behalf of its supporters, along with its own technical comments, on TVA's 2026 preliminary Integrated Resource Plan, according to CleanTechnica.

Grist reported that local media have recorded at least five fatal landslides at rare earth mining sites across Myanmar in recent years, with one collapse burying more than a dozen workers. Myanmar supplies more heavy rare earths than any other country, according to the same reporting.

In May, a local human rights group said a Chinese rare earth mining company operating in eastern Shan State used prisoners and human trafficking victims for what it called "slave labor," Grist reported. The group found that both the Myanmar military and the United Wa State Army were complicit.

One worker paid a broker 2,000 Chinese yuan, about USD 290, to secure rare earth mining jobs for himself and his brother, according to Grist. Put to work building roads, each was paid around 3,000 yuan, about USD 430, a month.

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project has ranked Myanmar's war as the second-most extreme in the world, according to Grist. The same ranking calls it the most fragmented conflict, spread across more than 1,200 distinct armed groups.

Myanmar carries the highest levels of organized crime of any country, according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, cited by Grist.

Environmentalists in Texas are calling on the state to adopt new laws and regulations governing where renewable energy projects should be built, how they should operate and how they should minimize environmental impact, according to Inside Climate News.

A new study argues for an alternative approach, proposing regulations intended to foster growth and minimize environmental impacts at the same time, Inside Climate News reported.

Those policy proposals contrast with bills introduced in prior Texas legislative sessions that were designed to artificially slow the progress of renewables, according to Inside Climate News.

Houthi militants hit two Saudi ships in the Red Sea, Semafor Net Zero reported. The Iran-backed group threatened to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a chokepoint carrying about 10% of global trade, according to Semafor.

Brent crude climbed above $98 as the fighting squeezed shipping, its highest level since early June, Semafor reported.

Semafor reported that Washington has moved additional troops and ordnance to the Gulf, with President Donald Trump weighing an escalation after Iranian attacks killed three US soldiers.

Reuters reported that the precision of Iranian strikes on CIA facilities prompted questions over possible Russian involvement.

DP World will build two ports on the UAE's east coast, part of a strategy to route trade around the Strait of Hormuz, according to Semafor Net Zero.

The company plans to connect its flagship Dubai terminal to the new Fujairah ports through an overground logistics network, Semafor Net Zero reported.

A 406-km oil pipeline running from Abu Dhabi bypasses the strait and lets the UAE double its east coast export capacity into the Gulf of Oman, according to Semafor Net Zero.

Fujairah reaches the Indian Ocean outside Gulf waters, while the UAE's six other emirates largely sit within the Strait of Hormuz, according to Semafor Net Zero.

Iowa environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the Iowa Department of Natural Resources over permits it approved for the Ottumwa coal ash landfill, according to CleanTechnica.

The groups say the permits allow hazardous disposal practices at the site, CleanTechnica reported.

The landfill holds waste from the Ottumwa coal-burning power plant, according to CleanTechnica. That plant is co-owned by Alliant Energy and MidAmerican Energy, CleanTechnica reported.

The Trump administration is moving closer to opening U.S. waters for deep-sea mining, according to Inside Climate News.

The industry focuses on extracting mineral-rich deposits from the ocean floor containing cobalt, copper, nickel and manganese, per Inside Climate News.

If the sale moves forward, mining activities could begin in federal waters near American Samoa. The proposed site is directly adjacent to a national wildlife refuge.