Activist investor group Market Forces tells coal miners to prepare for own demise
Woke investor group Market Forces claims it’s gathering shareholder support to force coal mining companies to start actively planning for their own demise.
Anti-fossil fuel activist investor group Market Forces plans to use upcoming annual general meetings to force votes to get major energy companies to plan for their own wind-down and closures.
Market Forces executive director Julien Vincent said on Thursday the group had support from enough Whitehaven Coal investors to put a resolution to the company’s AGM later this year. The resolution would be aimed at directing the miner to establish a plan to wind up the company to reduce its carbon footprint. He said Market Forces was seeking investor support for similar motions at New Hope Corporation, Beach Energy and Cooper Energy.
“Unless these companies are proactively planning for their own decline, massive wealth destruction and social instability loom for the producers of coal, oil and gas, their investors and their workforces,” Mr Vincent said.
“These resolutions marry the goals of protecting the climate, preserving capital and supporting workers in companies that have chosen to not particulate in the decarbonised economy. It’s the most sensible conversation we can imagine investors having with directors of fossil fuel companies.
“Investors must take this opportunity to manage the necessary decline of the fossil fuel sector.”
A spokesman for Whitehaven said the company still saw a role for high-quality thermal coal “as part of the global energy transition”.
“Whitehaven is the first pure play coal company in the world to comply with the recommendations of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures,” he said.
“Based on our analysis, which includes testing our resilience against the International Energy Agency’s published energy scenarios, we assess our portfolio as being resilient. This reflects informed judgments about the continuing demand for high quality coal given trends toward electrification and urbanisation in our region and consideration of other factors including reliability, cost-effectiveness and the limitations of renewables as dispatchable fuel sources.
“We, and our customers, shareholders and financiers, continue to see a role for high-quality coal as part of the global energy transition, including as a key input to electricity generation in a more carbon-constrained world. High-quality coal can contribute to meaningful carbon reductions today, and we will continue to meet the strong and growing demand for higher quality coal that exists in nearby export markets.”
Protect heritage, BHP told
Meanwhile, activist shareholders have put halting the destruction of Indigenous heritage sites and adhering to the Paris agreement on climate onto their list of demands for BHP’s annual shareholder meeting in October.
The Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) lodged the resolutions on Thursday, asking shareholders to direct the company’s board to adopt a moratorium on activities that would “disturb, destroy or desecrate cultural heritage sites” in Australia until new laws strengthening the rights of traditional owners to protect heritage sites are finalised.
The resolution also asks BHP to revisit land use agreements with traditional owners that include so-called “gag orders” preventing them from criticising the company in public.
ACCR executive director Brynn O’Brien said the resolution was put with the support of the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance, a coalition of more than 20 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations.
“Investors simply can’t stand by and allow another Juukan Gorge disaster to take place. Investors in BHP have the opportunity to ensure the company takes a cautious, best practice approach in dealing with Indigenous cultural heritage by issuing a moratorium on any further destruction until laws are strengthened,” she said.
The WA government is reviewing its laws protecting heritage sites, but legislation is not due to be introduced into the state’s parliament until later this year, and Ms O’Brien said the company should halt activities that disturb sites until the legislation was in place.
“While BHP committed to not undertake activities which would disturb 40 cultural heritage sites in the Pilbara ‘without further extensive consultation’ with Aboriginal Traditional Owners, it’s been reported that the company applied for ministerial consent to do so,” she said.
“Decisions about cultural heritage should be based on principles, not on a PR response to a crisis.”
The ACCR will also look to put BHP’s membership of the Minerals Council of Australia and other industry bodies back in the spotlight, putting a second resolution to the shareholder meeting demanding that BHP “immediately review” lobbying by industry peak bodies over economic recovery packages in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
It asks BHP to suspend its membership of industry groups if they are found to be “advocating for measures inconsistent with the Paris Agreement”.
BHP has been approached for comment.
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