To understand how significant a move this is for the decarbonisation of Australia’s dirty power system, it helps to know a little more about Brookfield.

The fund is not only a giant – with about $US688 billion of assets under management last year – it has proven itself to be one of the most canny renewable energy investors on earth. Its vice-chairman and “head of transition investing” is Mark Carney.

Carney is a former reserve bank governor of both England and Canada, who famously made a speech in 2015 calling on financial markets to recognise and act on the risk of the climate crisis. The speech helped the finance sector leapfrog some governments in their ambition to tackle climate change.

At the COP26 meeting in Glasgow it was Carney who revealed that the total assets of combined companies committed to achieving net zero emissions had risen to $US130 trillion.

If anyone has the clout and expertise to take over and decarbonise a power company it is Cannon-Brookes, an impact investor with a green power track record and Brookfield, says Tim Buckley, an energy analyst who has long been bearish on coal.