ANZ ‘not dragging its heels on climate’

ANZ Bank has rejected claims by climate activist group Market ­Forces that it’s lagging rivals in responding to climate change.

ANZ Bank has rejected claims by climate activist group Market ­Forces that it’s lagging rivals in responding to climate change. Picture: AFP

ANZ Bank has rejected claims by climate activist group Market ­Forces that it’s lagging rivals in responding to climate change, saying the facts do not support the group’s assertions.

Market Forces has proposed a shareholder resolution calling on ANZ to disclose its strategies and targets to reduce its exposure to fossil fuels in line with the ­objectives of the Paris Agreement, or risk exposing itself to “needless ­climate-related financial risk”.

“Despite committing to support the climate goals of the Paris Agreement, ANZ has failed to align its investment practices or policies with these goals,” the group said in the notice of meeting for ANZ’s annual meeting on ­December 16.

ANZ denied it was lagging the rest of the industry, or that it was an active investor in an expanding fossil fuels sector.

The bank also said it was untrue to claim that it only provided “superficial” disclosures on its ­approach to managing climate-related risk.

At its full-year result late last month, ANZ unveiled a new policy on climate change.

The aim was to help its top-100 customers for carbon emissions make the transition to carbon neutrality by 2050, as well as support transitioning customers and ­reduce its own footprint.

More specifically, the bank said it would further reduce the carbon intensity of its electricity-generation lending portfolio by only ­directly financing gas and renewable projects by 2030.

Further, it would engage with existing customers with a thermal coal exposure of more than 50 per cent to support their diversi­fication plans, and not fund any new coal-fired power plants or thermal coal projects, including ­expansions.

Existing loans, the bank said, would run off by 2030.

ANZ said it was also committed to maximising the financial opportunities available from the transition to net zero.

It would fund and facilitate at least $50bn by 2025 to help its customers reduce their impact on the environment, and ensure that $1bn of that amount was allocated to disaster resilience.

ANZ said it had not directly ­financed any new coal-fired power stations since 2015, and had ­reduced its funding of thermal coal projects by 70 per cent over the same period.