Westpac decried for climate change inaction

westpac Australian Ethical climate change big four bank

15 December 2022
| By Laura Dew |
image
image
expand image

Westpac has come under fire from shareholders over greenwashing with Market Forces describing the firm as a ‘laughing stock’.

At the firm’s annual general meeting in Melbourne on 14 December, comments were raised regarding its approach to climate change.

Resolutions had been lodged by Market Forces, asset manager Australian Ethical and almost 200 shareholders calling for the bank to stop financing coal, oil and gas expansion.

This included work the bank was doing with Whitehaven Coal, Woodside and Santos.

The resolutions come after revelations Australia’s big four banks, ANZ, CBA, NAB and Westpac, recently co-financed a $1.5 billion dollar deal related to major Australian oil and gas expander, Santos, and its Barossa gas project. ANZ and Westpac lent $1.2 billion to Woodside, which was developing a large Scarborough gas project.

Will van de Pol, asset management campaigner at Market Forces, said: “Westpac’s claim to support the climate goals of Paris Agreement and net zero emissions by 2050 while continuing to finance huge fossil fuel expansion plans of companies like Whitehaven Coal, Santos and Woodside is becoming a sick joke.

“Big investors, including Australian super funds, must demand Westpac close the loopholes in its climate policy and bring the bank into line with investors’ own climate commitments.”



 

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

3 weeks 5 days ago

This verdict highlights something deeply wrong and rotten at the heart of the FSCP. We are witnessing a heavy-handed, op...

1 month ago

Interesting. Would be good to know the details of the StrategyOne deal....

1 month ago

Insignia Financial has confirmed it is considering a preliminary non-binding proposal received from a US private equity giant to acquire the firm. ...

1 week 3 days ago

Six of the seven listed financial advice licensees have reported positive share price growth in 2024, with AMP and Insignia successfully reversing earlier losses. ...

5 days 23 hours ago

Specialist wealth platform provider Mason Stevens has become the latest target of an acquisition as it enters a binding agreement with a leading Sydney-based private equi...

5 days 3 hours ago