Shareholders table resolutions with Australia’s banks to stop fossil fuel financing

October 6, 2021

By Paulina Duran

SYDNEY (Reuters) – A group of shareholders filed climate change resolutions with three of Australia’s Big Four banks on Thursday, asking them to abide by their self-declared support for net-zero emissions by 2050 and stop financing fossil fuels.

The resolutions ask for a firm commitment from Westpac Banking Corp, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and National Australia Bank not to fund any fossil fuel projects, in line with calls by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Representatives for the banks were not immediately available for comment.

The resolutions, filed by a group of about 100 shareholders, come ahead of the United Nations’ COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, set to begin on Oct.31, and come at a time when the regulators are also increasing their scrutiny of climate-related risks and disclosures.

They are unlikely, however, to be officially tabled for a vote at the banks’ annual general meetings in December, partly because Australian corporate law prevents it.

But backing for these types of resolutions is acknowledged at meetings and support for similar proposals has risen in recent times.

Last year, shareholder support for similar resolutions tabled at the annual meetings of ANZ and NAB doubled to 28% and 26% respectively.

In one of the three matching resolutions, the shareholders say: “Despite committing to the climate goals of the Paris Agreement … ANZ is aligning its investment practices and policies with the failure of these goals, resulting in our company falling behind rapidly evolving investor and regulator expectations, and the practices of other financial institutions.”

Earlier this year, a group of investors managing $4.2 trillion, called on some of the world’s biggest banks to toughen their climate and biodiversity policies or risk rebellions at their next annual meetings.

A May report by the International Energy Agency said there should be no more new fossil fuel projects after this year for the world to reach its target of net zero emissions by 2050.

Australia, the world’s biggest coal exporter and one of the world’s largest carbon emitters per capita, has not signed up for that target, and this week approved its third coal mine extension in the past month.

(Reporting by Paulina Duran in Sydney; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

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