Green activists target banks

NAB and ANZ have been asked to ditch industry associations that promote fuels inconsistent with the Paris accord climate goals.

NAB said the ACCR resolution would be included in its notice of meeting. Picture: AAP

National Australia Bank and ANZ Bank have been hit with a second batch of shareholder resolutions, calling on the lenders to withdraw from industry associations with advocacy records inconsistent with the climate goals of the 2016 Paris Agreement.

The group behind the resolutions is the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility.

Last week, an ACCR resolution calling on BHP to withdraw its membership from the Minerals Council of Australia was rejected by the company’s shareholders in London. The proxy votes at the British annual general meeting went 70 per cent against the ACCR, with 22 per cent in favour.

The Australian end of the dual-listed company, which accounts for about 58 per cent of the share register, will vote on the resolution on November 7.

NAB said on Friday the ACCR resolution would be included in its notice of meeting, which will be distributed on November 15 and include a statement from the requisitioning shareholders as well as a voting recommendation from the board.

ANZ shareholders will consider the same resolution at its December 17 annual meeting, a day before the NAB meeting.

The resolutions propose that the banks suspend their memberships of industry associations which undertake lobbying, advocacy or advertising relating to climate or energy policy where the association’s record over the past three years is — on balance — contrary to the Paris accord.

ACCR also proposes the resolutions should be conditional on shareholder approval of resolutions proposed a week ago by another activist group, Market Forces, to change the banks’ constitutions.

Market Forces targeted NAB, Westpac and ANZ, calling on the three banks to lower their exposures to fossil-fuel assets, including a complete ban on thermal coal in developed economies by 2030.

The first resolution proposes a change in the banks’ constitutions, enabling advisory resolutions to be put to the board. The second one asks each bank — from 2020 — to disclose in its annual report the strategies and targets it will put in place to reduce its exposure to oil, gas and coal assets in line with the Paris Agreement.

This includes a zero exposure to thermal coal in OECD countries by no later than 2030.

The ACCR and supportive super and pension funds argued that the Minerals Council’s advocacy of coal ran counter to BHP’s support for climate and sustainability goals.

“BHP and society’s ability to transition (from carbon) in an orderly manner is directly challenged by industry associations that continue to lobby at a national and sub-national level to delay and disrupt the necessary regulatory response,” a representative of the Church of England Pensions Board, Adam Matthews, told the BHP meeting on Thursday.

“Regardless of the percentage of the vote achieved today, we know that over 50 climate-aware investors with over $US10 trillion ($14.6 trillion) in assets under management have indicated support, either publicly or privately.”

BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie said industry bodies deserved the company’s “full engagement”. “At a time of increased focus on local solidarity, protection and intervention in response to increased insecurity and global changes, it’s our participation in industry associations which can contribute to the more global solutions also required for a more progressive world,” he said.

“For example, I lead a task force across the mining industry, and its supply chains, to make our vehicles greener and safer. This typifies the vast bulk of the work of all the trade associations we join and we work tirelessly to make sure this kind of work is their major and predominant role.”