Hypocrisy of Australian banks over finance for renewable energy
Most Australian banks are signed up to the Equator Principles for project finance……the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment….the equator principles are “pretty loose … they don’t compel banks to do or not do particular things”. At worst, they are a dangerous aid to bank greenwashing.
Banks under scrutiny over coal funding, Sydney Morning Herald, Paddy Manning, 2 Oct 10, Australian banks, highly dependent on offshore capital, will face increasing international scrutiny of their lending practices – particularly, their exposure to the coal industry.
Greenpeace’s study of domestic lending to Australia’s coal industry, by Dutch economic consultancy Profundo, is a shot across the bows for our major banks which, like their international peers, are under growing pressure to limit funding to the key industries that are wrecking the climate.
A Profundo analyst, Jan Willem van Gelder, the lead author of the study, says research by the International Energy Agency for the OECD in 2008 concluded that from now until 2030, two-thirds of all investment in the electricity sector must go to renewable energy, if the world is to stabilise atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at 450 ppm, limit global warming to 2 degrees and prevent runaway climate change.
Profundo’s survey of loans over the last five years by seven Australian banks – comparing finance for existing and new coal-fired power stations, coalmines and coal port infrastructure, with finance for renewable energy projects – shows we are still heading in the wrong direction.
Finance for the coal industry trumps finance for renewables seven to one, at $5.5 billion versus $784 million. ………
Most Australian banks are signed up to the Equator Principles for project finance (Commonwealth Bank is the refusenik), the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative or, through their asset management arm, the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment.Perhaps, unsurprisingly, these vague commitments often mean little at the coalface, so to speak.
Greenpeace’s energy campaigner, John Hepburn, says the equator principles are “pretty loose … they don’t compel banks to do or not do particular things”.
At worst, they are a dangerous aid to bank greenwashing. A fellow campaigner, Trish Harrup, says Australian banks have positioned their brands as sustainable, by promising to become carbon neutral for example. “Our report reveals their coal investments dwarf any in-house effort on sustainability,” she said. Banks under scrutiny over coal funding
No comments yet.
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 
Leave a comment