By Will van de Pol, CEO, Market Forces. Mr van de Pol is an expert in ethical asset management and clean energy finance. It is hard to rationalise the recent decisions United States banks and investors have made to quit climate initiatives at the same time as global...
Will van de Pol
Banks must bring in 2025 with a big bang for the climate
By Will van de Pol, Chief Executive Officer, Market Forces, clean energy finance advocacy organisation. What’s your New Year’s resolution? The Commonwealth Bank has made a groundbreaking resolution to stop funding coal, oil and gas companies without genuine plans...
CommBank avoids resolution, but warned it’s not off the hook on climate action
11 October 2023 Today, Commonwealth Bank faced questions from shareholders over the remaining gaps in its climate policy. This year, Market Forces, along with hundreds of shareholders decided not to file a resolution on climate-related risk at the CommBank AGM. This...
UniSuper’s slow, quiet progress on fossil fuel divestment not good enough
UniSuper’s new climate risk report suggests the fund has continued quietly selling down its investments in Australia's largest gas producer, Woodside, and to a lesser extent, fellow climate-wrecking oil and gas expander, Santos. Despite mergers and share price changes...
HESTA asks the impossible of oil and gas producers Woodside, Santos and Origin, rather than divesting
In an attempt to justify continued investment in climate wrecking oil and gas producers Woodside, Santos and Origin, HESTA announced today it had asked the impossible of those companies, requesting they demonstrate how their new or proposed fossil fuel projects fit...
Santos sanctions another new project incompatible with 1.5°C
17 August 2022 Australia’s second biggest oil and gas producer, Santos, has today announced a final investment decision on the new Pikka Phase 1 oil project in Alaska. The decision comes despite the International Energy Agency’s warning that no new oil fields should...
BHP to close Mt Arthur thermal coal mine by 2030
16 June 2022 BHP today announced it will close its last thermal coal mine, Mt Arthur in NSW's Hunter Valley, by the end of the 2030 financial year. This is an important and pleasing departure from BHP's previous plans and actions relating to its fossil fuel assets,...
14.5% of shareholders tell Woodside to start winding down production
19 May 2022 Responding to the shareholder vote on the Market Forces-coordinated shareholder resolution at Woodside’s AGM in Perth today, Market Forces Asset Management Campaigner Will van de Pol said: "Today 49% of Woodside’s shareholders rejected the company’s...
Rio Tinto pushed for more ambition and accountability on scope 3 emissions reductions
5 May 2022 Almost 16% of Rio Tinto's shareholders today voted against the company's Climate Action Plan, demonstrating the company must increase the ambition and accountability of its emission reduction efforts. Given the improvements Rio has made on its operational...
Investor demands for Santos to wind down oil and gas production increase to 15%
3 May 2022 15% of Santos’ shareholders today defied the company’s board, demanding Santos drop its rampant oil and gas expansion plans and instead manage down production in line with a net zero emissions by 2050 pathway. This is an increase on the 13% support received...