It’s getting lonely for Adani in their destructive quest to build the Carmichael coal mine and railway line.
Twenty-eight major banks across four continents have now stated they will not lend money to the project. Adani’s construction partner Downer EDI has walked away. Most recently, Aurizon, Australia’s most experienced coal transportation company, took their proposal for a railway line off the table, in a significant vote of no confidence in the prospects of the entire Galilee Basin.
One major company remains with Adani. AECOM, the US-based engineering consultancy is designing Adani’s railway line and has indicated it is still working on this project despite the Qld Government vetoing a $1 billion taxpayer-funded loan to help build it.
AECOM’s loyalty to the hugely unpopular Carmichael project is odd, considering the significant reputation risks it entails for a company trying to position itself as innovative and sustainable. AECOM works across a very large range of industries and projects, including those seen as solutions to global warming, namely green buildings, renewable energy and, increasingly, climate change adaptation.
The hypocrisy is stark. At the same time that it is working to help Adani set off one of the biggest carbon bombs on Earth, AECOM is working with the City of New York to address sea level rise and storm surges. AECOM has also helped the Australian Defence Force and Sydney Airport to prepare for sea level rise. With USAID, AECOM is rolling out climate change adaptation projects in Asia and the Pacific region where people are already losing their lives and livelihoods due to global warming impacts.
AECOM seems happy to get paid helping governments and corporations adapt to a problem they themselves and helping to make worse. However, it’s likely that many of their clients will not be quite so tolerant of their hypocrisy.
Contender for planet's most hypocritical design firm, @AECOM is at work on NYC's storm resilience project--and helping #Adani build the world's most controversial coal mine. Like a dentist handing out candy, I guesshttps://t.co/3Aig3QHIz4
— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) February 6, 2018
AECOM has a choice. Are they on the side of climate solutions? Are they really a sustainable company that “protects our environment and improves people’s lives”? Or are they going to keep helping Adani build Australia’s largest export coal mine?
Take action below - tell AECOM to ditch its plans to help Adani rip up the Galilee Basin, unlock the carbon bomb that lies beneath it, and ship its dirty coal through the Great Barrier Reef.