Banking giant ANZ has faced a shareholder resolution during its annual general meeting in Brisbane, urging it to align its strategy and targets with the Paris Climate Agreement, including a complete phase out of thermal coal in OECD countries by 2030.
“Shareholders have welcomed but are rightly perplexed by recent revelations of ANZ's secret timetable to cut thermal coal mining exposure, which appear to contradict public statements from CEO Shayne Elliot that no such plans were in place,” said Jack Bertolus, Market Forces’ research director.
According to ABC, a leaked internal email from July revealed that ANZ plans to slash more than $700 million of thermal coal loans by 2024 and that it seeks opportunities to “accelerate this timetable” to cut its lending to the sector even faster, as part of an “orderly thermal coal mining reduction strategy.”
“ANZ’s internal shift is welcome, but its cuts to coal lending should be written into the bank’s publicly available policies with proper accountability mechanisms attached,” Bertolus said. “This is nowhere to be seen. ANZ also needs to clarify whether the timetable, which ends in 2024, is consistent with the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. This means committing to exit thermal coal mining and coal power generation in OECD countries like Australia by 2030, as Commonwealth Bank has already done.”
The revelation follows recent announcements by Commonwealth Bank and NAB to exit the thermal coal mining and coal power sectors by 2030 and 2035, respectively, ABC said.
Market Forces also noted a “worrying uptick” in ANZ’s funding to the sector over the past two years.
The bank’s FY19 full year results showed thermal coal exposure was greater in both March and September 2019 compared with September last year. ANZ’s reported exposure default to coal mining was also up by 27% from $1.4 billion from September 2017 to September 2018, plus another 7% to $1.5 billion from September 2018 to the same month this year, Market Forces said.
“Even factoring in the leaked internal thermal coal plan, ANZ’s continued backing for fossil fuels make it a climate laggard manifestly failing to live up to its own commitments,” Bertolus said. “ANZ needs to come clean with shareholders about its direction on climate and energy, and to set clear targets and strategies to reduce fossil fuel exposure in line with the Paris Agreement.”
