Guest essay by Eric Worrall
As global fossil fuel demand surges, a shareholder resolution by Commonwealth Bank of Australia to stop fossil fuel lending was overwhelmingly rejected by 86% of shareholders.
Investors reject call for Australia’s CBA to stop fossil fuel funding
CONTRIBUTOR Paulina Duran
OCT 13, 2021 3:45AM EDTy Paulina Duran
SYDNEY, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Commonwealth Bank of Australia CBA.AX investors on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected a resolution calling for the lender to stop financing new fossil fuel projects, highlighting the resistance in the resources-reliant country to climate action.
The resolution, backed by just 14% of voting shareholders at the bank’s annual general meeting, comes ahead of the United Nations’ COP26 climate talks in Glasgow later this month, when Australia will be under pressure to reduce its carbon emissions.
The resolution also asked Australia’s largest lender to publish targets to cut its fossil fuel exposures, consistent with net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, but was not supported by CBA’s board.
“The Board remains fully committed to CBA playing its part in limiting climate change, in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement, and supporting the transition to net zero emissions by 2050,” Chairwoman Catherine Livingstone told investors at the virtual meeting.
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Read more: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/investors-reject-call-for-australias-cba-to-stop-fossil-fuel-funding-2021-10-13
Blackrock, one of the world’s largest asset management companies, which has made a big song and dance about demanding everyone support Net Zero the last few years, was one of the shareholders which OPPOSED the CBA fossil fuel ban resolution.
Blackrock rejects call for Australia’s CBA to stop fossil fuel funding
By Paulina Duran
SYDNEY (Reuters) – BlackRock Inc, the world’s largest money manager, voted against a resolution calling for Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) to stop financing new fossil fuel projects, it said late on Wednesday.
CBA’s largest shareholder said it opposed the resolution, which also asked the bank to publish targets to cut its fossil fuel exposures consistent with net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, because it was overly prescriptive.
“(It) risks unduly constraining management’s ability to make business decisions,” BlackRock said in a statement on its website.
“Further, the company has demonstrated its commitment to integrating climate risks into its long-term strategy, including Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)-aligned reporting since 2018 and a stated goal of net zero emissions by 2050.”
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Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blackrock-rejects-call-australias-cba-081555838.html
As the wheels come off COP26, and news spreads of China, India and Europe’s catastrophic self inflicted coal shortages, investors like the CBA shareholders are waking up fossil fuels will remain an essential component of the world economy for the foreseeable future.
When it touches your hip pocket directly, it suddenly isn’t so important ! HA!
I think it’s just that the majority of people with money to invest, don’t think CAGW exists. That’s essentially the conservative majority who don’t whinge and whine on social media constantly.
I’m amazed that the whingers and whiners really don’t realise that they are in a vocal majority, while the silent majority just gets on with doing things and generating wealth.
When whole of the family are long term whingers and whiners is it a surprise that the great old lady on odd occasion gets it wrong.
Sorry, “vocal minority”
It’s no surprise what the silent majority are thinking and this will dent the Australian federal government, at the next election.
People with money are usually the people with brains. The ability to think rationally about AGW and recognize it for the unscientific nonsense it is/
The are shocked, shocked I tell you, that people actually expect them to act on this climate nonsense. They thought it was understood that as long as their public statements were full of virtue signaling, they could carry on as before.
I had to laugh at “Prince” William chastising William Shatner for his flight into near space, instead of staying here and “fixing our broken planet”. Will this mean no more jetting around on William’s “Royal” tours? Of course not !
It’s soooo easy to be clean and green as long as you can wash your clothes and yourself, and it doesn’t take your greenbacks. But once beautiful theory turns into ugly practice at your expense, minds revert to reality.
Up to this point the so called “energy transition” hasn’t caused Joe Sixpack anything. But that is rapidly changing. Now that Joe Sixpack’s Ox is starting to be gored- expect resistance like this failed proposal to start rearing its head across multiple continents. The green slime had best get used to ducking.
Best to keep Al away from Joe Sixpack’s ox, I reckon.
Our company moved our funds away from the ANZ bank here in Oz a year ago because of their aggressive anti coal, gas, oil stance. We moved to CBA – glad we did.
Normally one bank would be as bad as another…I’m pleasantly surprised by the CBA, more so their SH’s and don’t understand Blackrock at all who have been pushing hard for change for quite some time.
I suspect Blackrock wants YOU to follow the new religion they’re pushing, but don’t actually believe it themselves.
I pulled all my money out of Blackrock when they started pushing this climate BS a few years back.
Blackrock doesn’t want to lose money, duh! When you are dealing with many billions of dollars or pounds, or gold nobody wants to lose big.
“human-caused” climate change is a surefire loser.
It will be interesting to see how the Trudeau government proceeds with their ‘Resilient Recovery’ plans to surround Ottawa with industrial wind turbines.
https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/trudeau-government-should-learn-from-ontarios-green-energy-failure
Gerry Butts, former principal secretary to Prime Minister Trudeau, is at the heart of a new group, the Task Force for a Resilient Recovery, which recently released a series of recommendations for massive investment in green projects. These recommendations seems to be influencing the prime minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, in terms of how best to promote economic recovery.
Even though I worked for both ANZ, in New Zealand and here in Australia, and, indirectly via HP, the CBA in Australia, I saw their practices were awful, especially treatment of the workforce. I took my banking business elsewhere.
I was involved in the recovery of Australia’s second largest IT disaster in 2012. CBA pointing fingers at HP. HP stepping back and saying “Hey! Not us! Microsoft saying “Well, it was a user error. That actually forced Microsoft to change SCCM.
Major corporations that actually try to implement this Climate Scientology nonsense are about to understand the meaning of Get Woke, Go Broke….
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/us-coal-booms-under-biden-unlike-trump
“A global energy crunch is rippling through the world amid a huge rebound for power. Natural gas has soared to record highs as supplies remain tight, and countries are finding out that renewable energy sources aren’t as reliable as previously thought. This has created a massive worldwide scramble by power companies for fossil fuels, especially coal. “
It is about the same percentage of the Australian public who are not willing to pay to do anything about climate action but given there are a lot more institutional investors in CBA I thought they might get a higher number. You can see why the major political parties aren’t willing to do much more than give lip service to climate change.
Absolutely fantastic news, and not a peep from the MSM.
No, the MSM, eg, with Harrabin was coming out with yet more useless crap as of yesterday,-
4 farticles* on web main page “climate” alone.
https://www.bbc.com/news/58160547
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46459714
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56901261
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-24021772
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-57483492
WTF, DEFUND THEM!
*a farticle is a main page shot from a fake news factory.
Australian PM Scott Morrison is going to attend COP26 in Glasgow.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2021/10/15/scott-morrison-glasgow-climate-2/
A pity the New Daily doesn’t know the difference between HRH and HM.
While the Aussies are re-aranging the deck chairs on their energy Titanic PR China got a clever idea, that might even get Western dumb Green finance:
That space ray can later also be used to wipe out their Western debtors in less than 1 second. Nice dual use tech!
Whoever is running the Chinese space program is thinking Big.
Now we just have to see if the vision translates into reality.
A U.S. company is planning on putting up a demonstration Solar Power Satellite by around 2025. It will be in a low-Earth orbit.
I wonder if the Chinese space visionary ever thought about using an inflatable balloon as his SPS structure. A one-mile diameter balloon in space could be inflated using about 40 pounds of helium. Put your solar cells on the outside of the balloon and you have a giant SPS that wouldn’t take nearly as many launches of a Chinese heavy-lift launch vehicle, as one constructed in orbit. Faster and lighter, and much less labor.
The balloon design for an SPS was written (Space Studies Institute) when thin-film solar cells were just being developed, and I’m not sure about their current stage of development, but the plan was to cover the inflatable balloon with thin-film solar cells, so once the balloon was in orbit and inflated, it was ready to go to work.
I need to dig that Space Studies Institute study out.
Space Studies Institute was founded by Gerard O’Neill, who was one of Jeff Bezos’ mentors at MIT.
Love to see the effect a good thunder storm, with lots of lightening would have on that link.
From a good distance of course.
Are you sure the weapon capability is not their primary objective?
And using solar panels is an easy way to deflect western anxiety, get applause even.
I am a shareholder in CBA and part of the 86%. It is about time that all boards of directors, and I have some experience as a director in companies elsewhere, remember that their duty is to the shareholders and to maximise their investment in the company. Directors can do that by looking after their customers and the stakeholders. They may not be able to do that by paying lip service to nonsense like the worst of the climate panic artists unless it actually improves the bottom line of the company. If it does anything else, they are derelict in their duties. Unfortunately our corporate regulator in Australia, ASIC, has drunk the Kool-Aid as well and forgets its responsibility is to make sure that directors take their responsibilities seriously. A few court cases might help but unfortunately our judges also seem to be as bad.
My situation is a mirror image of yours Quilter, and I concur 100% with your statements.
Nothing happens accidentally in politics.
“As the wheels come off COP 26 ….. ”
So true. In the paper this morning both the Scottish trains and the Glasgow refuse collectors are going on strike during COP 26.
Now I wonder why no-one thought that that might happen?
France.
people are p..ssd off.
After a burst of the control freaks road show…
This was predictable.
France the capital of strikes and demos is starting to show the cracks in the system (again).
Next comes a barrage of whistle blowers, at which point the “wheels come off” Macretin and his corrupt backers.
I suggest this may become more common (after Poland showing a middle finger to the control freaks in Brussels).
I read that about Poland high court ruling that EU law does not trump Polish law and their constitution. Again, no coverage in the Australian MSM. I have said to my Polish work colleague that Poland is looking to get out of the EU, and it looks like it may happen. He just laughed at me.
I never understood why they wanted Poland in. Now they want Turkey in.
I’m so glad for the UK that they got out, even though it’s a royal PITA for me, living part time in Europe.
Won’t happen for ages.
Polls of Poles have been pretty consistently showing 15 to 17% of voters wanting to leave.
Poland has the highest number of workers elsewhere in Europe, and is also the largest net benefactor of EU money transfers.
Ruling party explictly has said they will stay in EU.
Suddenly things have changed, only last year High Priest Roger Harrabin claimed
Coal power developers risk wasting hundreds of billions of pounds as new renewable sources are now cheaper than new coal plants
Matt Gray, of Carbon Tracker and a co-author of the report, said: “Renewables are out-competing coal around the world and proposed coal investments risk becoming stranded assets which could lock in high-cost coal power for decades.
Coal power developers ‘risk wasting billions’ – BBC News
There isn’t much talk about stranded assets now.
Harrabin a serial liar, propaganda monger, twister, same as the Bojo, princess nut-nutz team out BShitting even Harrabin.
(or Savile for that matter).
That claim is simplistic, ask him to produce a cost-benefit analysis comparison for a coal fired power station of four 500 MW generator units package including ancillaries and another with wind turbines and ancillaries and solar and ancillaries plus feeder transmission lines to the grid those remote installations require.
With no subsidies to boost profit before tax that power stations are not granted. And do not try to pass off deductible operating expenses as subsidies, so called renewables can also claim them.
No contest, coal fired power station wins easily.
It is difficult to find a list of Solar and Wind farms currently operating in Australia and that may be for a reason as their actual Kwh delivery is very dismal.
Solar and Wind farms in Australia, now almost exceed Coal fired power station in name plate capacity. Yet Coal Power delivers over 70% of reliable energy to Australia. Based on that, solar and wind need to build more to triple their name plate capacity and that will still not provide 24/7 reliable energy.
Not withstanding the extra demand that EV’s will bring whilst they are plugged in for charging their 80 to 100Kwh batteries overnight.
LONDON (Reuters) -Chinese President Xi Jinping will not attend the COP26 climate summit in person, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been told, The Times newspaper reported.
Britain, which hosts the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, or COP26, in Glasgow on Oct. 31-Nov 12, is seeking to get big power support for a more radical plan to tackle climate change.
“It is now pretty clear that Xi is not going to turn up and the PM has been told that,” The Times quoted an unidentified British source as saying. “What we don’t know is what stance the Chinese are going to take.”
The Times said British organisers fear that Xi’s decision to stay away could be a prelude to China refusing to set new climate change goals amid an energy crunch.
The Chinese embassy in London could not be reached for immediate comment.
From the article: “As the wheels come off COP26, and news spreads of China, India and Europe’s catastrophic self inflicted coal shortages, investors like the CBA shareholders are waking up fossil fuels will remain an essential component of the world economy for the foreseeable future.”
I think the latest worldwide electricity problems are causing many people to start paying attention to what is going on around them. They are starting to realize just how important fossil fuels are to their lives. Alarmists must be very conflicted over these thoughts.
Don’t worry, alarmists. There is no CO2 crisis. I know, you’ve been told differently, but it’s not true. Relax and enjoy your life.
It seems people are happy to go along with the idea that the Emperor is splendidly outfitted in the finest of fashion until someone start charging for the privilege of staring at the Emperor’s flabby backside and dangling dew worm.
Love it!
Blah, blah, blah.
Greta
While China is officially not buying coal from Australia, frequent reports say it is buying Australian coal through indirect channels. Maybe that is too inefficient to provide what they need.
Europe and the UK have acted against reason regarding coal powered electrical generation so their problems are self inflicted.
However neither India nor other east Asian countries have been so foolish, nor most of the rest of the world have taken such steps according to any thing I’ve read, so how is their coal shortage self inflicted?
A background briefing on shareholders attempting to influence public companies like the CBA.
In the late 1980s a Labor Government of Australia introduced a Superannuation Guarantee Levy on employers to be paid into superannuation funds on behalf of employees for their retirement funding. Soon afterwards the Union Movement started their own superannuation fund businesses. Employers who were wary of unions expressed concern that the accumulating funds would grow into substantial investment funds and be used to buy influence and even seats on boards for union executives.
It is these sources of shareholders that are lobbying public companies like the CBA (Commonwealth Bank of Australia when it was Federal Government owned) and often succeeding in convincing the woke directors and senior executives to defund coal mining and power stations and other climate hoax political agendas. The arms of the union octopus reaches into most of the business world. And the union controlled Labor Party along with their political friends the Greens who also receive union donations are beneficiaries in the political arena.