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Environmental activism

January

Donald Trump is back in the White House.

Trump will only make China great

Readers’ letters on Donald Trump’s White House return, the ESG revolt, taxpayer-funded lunches, DEI initiatives, antisemitic attacks, and the return of Joe Aston.

September 2024

Santos has been trying to develop the Narrabri gas project in NSW for 14 years.

Santos cleared of coercion over Narrabri land access

The result of an inquiry into an Environmental Defenders Office complaint comes as NSW extended a Santos “authority to survey” for a pipeline for Narrabri gas.

August 2024

Woodside Energy’s Browse project is off the coast of Broome. It has already scrapped plans for an onshore LNG processing facility.

Woodside’s $30b Browse LNG project faces EPA knockback threat

The recommendation is not final and could be reversed after further negotiations, but a final rejection would be a blow to Labor’s long-term gas strategy.

July 2024

The court challenge to the Barossa  pipeline delayed the work of pipeline laying vessel Audacia in the Timor Sea.

Santos wins court battle on EDO funding quest

The Federal Court also cleared the way for Santos to pursue the Environmental Defenders Office for costs in its failed case against the Barossa gas project.

June 2024

A Santos offshore gas rig. Claims by Tiwi Islanders that Santos’ proposed Barossa pipeline would damage sea country were rejected.

Santos demands lawyers pay costs in failed anti-gas-project case

The EDO’s conduct was “so far on the wrong side of the acceptable line” it should have to foot the company’s legal bill, Santos argues.

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April 2024

Richard Goyder at Woodside Energy’s annual meeting last year. He faces a fight for re-election at this year’s meeting.

HESTA sides with Woodside on Goyder’s future

But the outspoken superannuation fund, which has criticised the company for not doing enough on emissions reduction, will vote against its climate strategy.

Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher at the company’s annual meeting in Adelaide on Thursday.

Support for Santos chairman overwhelms environmental activist push

The company has been working on major LNG projects, making it a target for climate campaigners. But it has had limited investor backlash to those plans.

Santos has won a legal case allowing it to proceed with its Barossa project, close to the Tiwi Islands.

Santos pursues environmentalists that bankrolled Barossa gas protest

The gas producer wants four activist groups to hand over documents that could show who funded litigation against its offshore project north of Darwin.

December 2023

West Australian Premier Roger Cook: “The actual process of assessment and approval should be much more predictable.”

Big miner lauds WA reforms after premier cooks greenies

WA Premier Roger Cook has doubled down on comments that well-resourced environmental groups were working to split up Indigenous landowners.

November 2023

Australian banks have $47bn of loans for livestock agriculture, the sub-sector with the biggest impact on nature.

Directors urged to get advice as nature risk turns liability

A groundbreaking legal opinion says company directors who fail to consider the toll on nature could be in breach of their duty of care and diligence obligations.

October 2023

ESG funds have begun to shrink for the first time, new Morningstar data shows.

ESG funds are shrinking as managers, investors move on

For the first time, money managers in the United States closed more ESG funds than they opened. In Australia, flows are also slowing right down.

August 2023

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Ken Henry has a dire warning on this forgotten issue

Ken Henry’s environmental warnings are arguably more dire, more imminent, more urgent, more troublesome and a great deal less hypothetical than the need to address a gradually shifting tax base.

Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill and WA Premier Roger Cook.

‘What’s the obsession?’ - Cook denounces ‘extremist’ Woodside protest

The Western Australian Premier has denounced protesters who descended on the home of Woodside chief Meg O’Neill, describing them as “extremists”.

June 2023

Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, at lunch in London with the AFR’s Hans van Leeuwen

Ex Unilever boss on doing the right thing (and making money)

As the CEO who turned Unilever green, the Dutchman received many more bouquets than brickbats – even from shareholders. Over lunch, he shares his secret sauce.

March 2023

Rajiv Jain of GQG Partners.

GQG tips $2.8b into Adani stocks

Rajiv Jain has poured money into four Indian-listed Adani companies, taking a big bet that an activist short seller is wrong.

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February 2023

Private investor Jeremy Raper worked at Goldman Sachs for four years.

Why this Sydney banker is fighting one of Indonesia’s richest families

Ex-Goldman Sachs analyst Jeremy Raper is trying to get authorities to intervene against a family’s grab for Stanmore Resources and its Australian coal mines.

December 2022

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has defended the firm’s push into ESG investing.

BlackRock urged to sack Larry Fink over ESG ‘failures’

Activist investor Bluebell Capital says the CEO undermines the investment giant’s credibility by continuing to invest in fossil fuels.

October 2022

Santos has had to cease drilling in the Barossa gas field north of the Tiwi Islands due to a court ruling.

Environmental Defenders’ Office funding ‘goes against Asian allies’

The funds are supporting activist litigation against the government’s own regulator and against ensuring energy supply to regional allies, a Credit Suisse analyst says.

June 2022

“I’m not going to start making announcements without extensive consultation,” said Tanya Plibersek of Labor’s planned environmental watchdog body.

Plibersek has enviro ‘wrongdoers’ in her sights

Labor’s planned environmental watchdog will go after those who have failed to live up to their promises to care for land and biodiversity, says Ms Plibersek.

Mike Cannon-Brookes.

For ESG, with great power comes great responsibility

The ESG movement has entrenched itself in the global capital markets. Now the real work begins for its proponents.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/environmental-activism-1mpr