China–Australia Dialogue on Energy, Resources, and Climate Policy
Date: 31 July 2025
Location: UTS Tower Building, Sydney, Australia
Partners: UTS:ACRI, ANU:CCEP, National Foundation for Australia–China Relations (NFACR)

Overview
The 17th ISETS Energy Transition Forum was held in Sydney on 31 July 2025 as a high-level, invitation-only roundtable. The event was initiated and led by the Centre for Climate and Energy Policy at the Australian National University (ANU:CCEP) as part of a broader national program funded by the National Foundation for Australia–China Relations (NFACR) to advance Australia–China cooperation on decarbonisation.

The Sydney forum was co-hosted in partnership with the Australia–China Relations Institute at UTS (UTS:ACRI) and the International Society for Energy Transition Studies (ISETS), who supported local coordination and stakeholder engagement. The roundtable brought together senior experts, government, industry, and academic representatives to exchange views on China’s evolving energy, industrial, and climate policies and explore opportunities for bilateral collaboration.

Forum Theme
“Understanding China’s Evolving Energy and Climate Policy Landscape: Implications and Opportunities for Australia”
As part of a series of bilateral knowledge exchanges, the Sydney roundtable brought together senior Chinese academics and Australian stakeholders from government, industry, and academia to engage in an in-depth, off-the-record dialogue on China’s ongoing transformation in energy, resources, and climate policy. The Forum explored the domestic drivers of China’s low-carbon transition, recent developments in industrial decarbonisation (including green iron and steel), and the implications for bilateral cooperation, trade, and innovation in the energy sector.

Key Participants and Contributors
Prof. Zhang Xiliang, Director, Institute of Energy, Environment and Economy, Tsinghua University
Dr. Weng Yuyan, Assistant Professor, Tsinghua University
Dr. Tony Tang, Associate Professor, Fudan University
Prof. Frank Jotzo, Director, ANU:CCEP
Prof. Xunpeng (Roc) Shi, President of ISETS, Research Principal at UTS:ACRI

Other participants included senior representatives from ARENA, Ember, China Construction Bank Australia, Climate Energy Finance, the Minerals Council, Export Finance Australia, Smart Energy Council, IGCC, UNSW, and multiple research institutes from UTS.

This Forum reinforced ISETS’s role as a neutral platform for cross-border, multidisciplinary energy transition dialogue. The event also contributed to broader goals of fostering mutual understanding and cooperation between China and Australia in support of global climate and energy objectives. It marked a deepening of ISETS’s collaboration with academic and policy institutions and continued ISETS’s commitment to convening informed, high-level, and actionable exchanges across borders.