Tell Commbank: net-zero by 2050 = no new fossil fuels
13 October 2021 Commonwealth Bank shareholders are today gathering at the company’s virtual annual general meeting (AGM), where they’ll hold the bank to account for all manner of issues, key among which is Commbank’s continued heavy financing for dirty fossil fuels. In fact, Market Forces supported shareholders to lodge a … Read More
NAB and Westpac: Stop funding Whitehaven Coal!
15 September 2021 The federal Environment Minister has just signed-off approval for Whitehaven’s climate-wrecking Vickery coal mine. But Whitehaven still needs to find enough money to match the mine’s $600 million price-tag. Despite stating their support for the Paris Agreement, NAB and Westpac loaned a combined $220 million to Whitehaven … Read More
Macquarie fails to rule out funding fossil fuel projects incompatible with net zero
29 July 2021 Major Australian financial institution Macquarie was today challenged by shareholders and communities over its support for the oil and gas industry, and inconsistencies between this support and its commitment to net zero emissions by 2050. Just weeks after Macquarie’s commitment to “aligning our financing activity with the … Read More
ASIC investigation requested into New Hope statements
21 July 2021 Australian coal company New Hope has a track-record of dodging questions about the material financial risks to its business from climate change. That’s why this week EDO Australia, on behalf of Market Forces, wrote to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) requesting an investigation into potentially … Read More
Coal affair sinks Mark Vaile’s uni application
23 June 2021 Thanks to an enormous backlash from students, staff, alumni, donors and the NTEU, former Deputy Prime Minister and chairman of Whitehaven Coal Mark Vaile decided to walk away from his appointment as the next chancellor of Newcastle University [1]. Vaile’s decision underscores that associating with the climate-wrecking … Read More
Woah big spender! New Hope splashes out promoting climate-wrecking coal
11 June 2021 Data released last month shows that coal company New Hope splurged over $650,000 on the 2020 Queensland election, ranking fourth on a ‘big spenders’ list headed by Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy Pty Ltd [1]. The bulk of the company’s expenditure was on advertising, marketing and public relations advice … Read More
Spotlight on big banks after landmark court decision
28 May 2021 In a landmark judgment yesterday about Whitehaven’s proposed Vickery coal mine, Australia’s Federal Court decided that the national environment minister has a duty of care not to cause harm to young people from climate change. According to Ava Princi, one of the eight school students who brought … Read More
Big banks snub local farmers concerned about Whitehaven Coal
12 April 2021 Whitehaven Coal is one of the biggest coal mining corporations on the Australian share market and some of the world’s biggest banks, including Westpac, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, played a key role in lending $1 billion to the company in 2020. ANZ and Commonwealth Bank have … Read More
New Hope’s largest shareholder says it doesn’t need to think about net-zero by 2050
9 December 2020 The largest shareholder of Australian thermal coal mining company New Hope, Washington H Soul Pattinson, fielded a number of shareholder questions on the shift away from coal-fired power generation required to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The company’s responses will do little to reassure investors … Read More