Net-zero conviction? It seems you can (almost) bank on it
No doubt the change in such policies has been led by US President Donald Trump, but there have been cameos from billionaire Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates and former UK prime minister Tony Blair.
As Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers signalled this week that their government was prepared to cede the hosting of next year’s big UN climate conference to Turkey, chief executives of Australia’s big four banks were being grilled by the Coalition in Parliament House on how much each bank believed in net zero.
NAB’s Andrew Irvine said his bank was prepared to let overseas financiers eat his lunch on profitable Australian gas projects.
“The primary restriction that we have as a bank is that we will not fund gas extraction for export,” he said.
“There is plenty of global capital that would love to fund Australian gas extraction.
“The rationale for us as a bank is because we’ve committed to financed emissions, aligning to Australia’s commitment to net zero, providing financing for natural gas extraction for export would be inconsistent with that policy setting.”
NAB giving up such profitable lending in the name of net zero certainly shows the bank’s interpretation of its fiduciary duty.
ANZ chief executive Nuno Matos, who supports net zero, was a little more circumspect in achieving it, saying the drive towards decarbonisation could be the “medicine [that] could kill the patient”.
The Liberal Party deputy chair of the House of Representatives economic committee, Simon Kennedy, asked Mr Matos whether he thought that the world would achieve net zero by 2050.
“I would say at this point in time, it seems to be difficult to reach with the current dynamics, with the current technology,” Mr Matos said.
“With the current public stance in many parts of the world, it is becoming more difficult.”
Asked by Mr Kennedy whether Australia was on track to hit its climate targets, Mr Matos acknowledged they were “ambitious because it demands significant change”.
“The medicine could kill the patient … so the transition has to be balanced,” he said.
Only a day earlier, CBA boss Matt Comyn deferred to the experts on whether Australia would achieve net zero, saying it would be “very challenging”.
Westpac’s Anthony Miller said achieving net-zero 2050 “cannot be at the cost of dependability and reliability, and it should not be such that the power price is more expensive going forward”.
Mr Gates, in his blog post that further shifted debate on the topic in October, noted that “to get to net zero, we need more breakthroughs.”
Without those breakthroughs, you can expect some further shifts in climate policies.
Australian Defence Force at risk with old satellite kept on line
Australia’s biggest banks this week showed just how much conviction they had around the net-zero 2050 policy the Coalition dumped last week.