Adani must not be allowed to greenwash itself at UK climate summits

12 October 2021

Coal billionaire Gautam Adani cannot be allowed to greenwash his company’s reputation in front of world leaders and investors at the Global Investment Summit in London and the United Nations COP26 in Glasgow.

Hosted by the UK Government on 19 October, the Global Investment Summit is meant to encourage and showcase investment in green technologies and renewable energy industries. 

Speaking at this summit would give Gautam Adani yet another opportunity to talk up the Adani Group’s investments in renewable energy, while completely glossing over the billions of dollars that the Adani Group is pouring into new fossil fuel projects, such as the climate-wrecking Carmichael thermal coal project in Australia. 

As if that was not enough, sources tell us that Adani is seeking a spot at the United Nation’s COP26 climate summit later this year. To preserve the credibility of that event, the UK Government hosts must make sure Adani Group is not able to use it for its own purposes.

As our research published earlier this year has shown, the Adani Group is currently pursuing several massive new fossil fuel projects, including:

• A doubling of its coal-fired power capacity by 12 gigawatts (GW) to 24 GW, giving it more coal power capacity than all of Australia.
• Owning, developing or operating 132 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of NEW thermal coal mining capacity, including the infamous Carmichael project.
• New coal and LNG terminals at Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone’s ports.
• An obscure and highly polluting facility that would convert coal, including imported thermal coal, into plastics.

As the host of both these summits, the UK Government is responsible for organising speakers and events. These opportunities should only go to people and companies that are absolutely committed to solving the climate crisis, not to billionaire coal barons making it worse.

So if the UK Government’s claims about climate action are to be taken seriously, it cannot give the Adani Group a global platform from which it can greenwash its tattered reputation.