At today’s annual general meeting in in Melbourne, Macquarie Group Chairman Peter Warne made the startling admission that he “was not familiar” with the recommendations of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Disclosures (TCFD). While the TCFD may not be well known in the wider community, its work and … Read More
Media Release: Coal funding dries up but $17bn funneled to fossil fuels by ‘Big Four’ banks since Paris Agreement
Monday 24 July, 2017: New analysis from environmental finance group Market Forces today reveals Australia’s Big Four banks have lent $17 billion dollars to expand the fossil fuel industry since declaring their commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement of keeping the world well below two degrees warming. The projects financed equate to … Read More
Two degrees scorecard update
In December 2015, the Paris climate talks saw 195 nations agree to limit global warming to well below 2°C, compared with pre-industrial levels. In the lead up to Paris, ANZ, CommBank, NAB and Westpac all publicly championed the two degree limit, committing to support the transition to a low carbon … Read More
CommBank’s climate fail
Commonwealth Bank has been given FAIL grades in all four categories of a new study into international banks’ fossil fuel lending policies. With no publicly disclosed policies to restrict coal mining, coal power, LNG exports or extreme oil, Commonwealth Bank found itself at the bottom of a pile of 37 … Read More
Media release: Adani’s brand kryptonite: new poll reveals widespread support for Westpac decision to rule out funding
Friday 5 May, 2017: According to a national poll conducted by Essential Research, three times more Australians are in favour of Westpac ruling out funding for Adani’s controversial Carmichael mine proposal than those against. The poll, commissioned by environmental finance group, Market Forces, revealed that 41% of Australians approve of … Read More
Big banks loaned $10 billion to fossil fuels in 2016
6 March 2017 2016 was the first full year after the Paris agreement was signed, and since Australia’s big banks all committed to support the goal of holding global warming to well below 2ºC. So, how exactly did the banks go about backing up their 2°C commitments last year? Well, … Read More
Westpac tests the patience of ethical investors
9 December 2016 Westpac’s ‘clean and green’ image was shattered today at their Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Adelaide. It started outside the venue where a group of young people presented Westpac with a ‘climate hypocrite’ award for their bankrolling of dirty fossil fuel projects. The world famous fish ‘Nemo’ … Read More
Media release: NAB’s climate change position makes new fossil fuel projects impossible to fund
Melbourne, 14 November 2016 NAB’s climate change position announced today sets it apart from the major banks, but the real proof will be in its future lending decisions, according to environmental finance campaigners Market Forces. The bank’s “Dig Deeper” sustainability report[1], released today, adopts important new language committing NAB to … Read More
Whitehaven: A lot to hide this AGM
28 October 2016 Yesterday Whitehaven Coal held their Annual General Meeting in Sydney. They obviously had a lot to hide. While most AGMs are filmed and broadcast, Whitehaven decided to record only the audio, and cut off recording completely before question time. To bring you up to speed Whitehaven is the company that, … Read More
Divestment Day Live!
On Friday 7th and Saturday 8th October, over 1000 Australians joined us for Divestment Day activities at 13 locations around the country. With hundreds of customers closing their accounts in protest of the banks’ dirty fossil fuel investments, and public demonstrations of community strength, the message to the banks was loud … Read More
