How activists pushed the Commonwealth Bank of Australia out of coal in five years A small group of radical activists was able to use the corporate world's rules against itself, in one of the remarkable stories of the Australian environmental movement. Aaron PatrickSenior Correspondent Sep 26, 2019 — 12.00am When the corporate lobbying arm of the Friends of the Earth – an environmental group that could be fairly labelled eco-socialists – told Australia's largest company it was working on a plan that could embarrass the board, guess what Catherine Livingstone did? The famously tough Commonwealth Bank of Australia chairman invited Market Forces executive director Julien Vincent to the bank's hushed headquarters overlooking Sydney's Darling Habour for a direct conversation. Julien Vincent's team was ironically dubbed Market Forces, signifying that capitalism would be used against itself. Elke Meitzel From the encounter – which was kept secret from most of the bank – both sides got what they wanted. Livingstone, a giant of Australian business, won't face the awkwardness of a rebel proposal at the bank's shareholder meeting in Sydney on October 16. Vincent, a 38-year-old climate campaigner, can and has claimed credit for the nation's most powerful financial institution repudiating coal used to generate electricity – an industry that made $26 billion from foreign sales last financial year and provided an essential service of modern existence to countless people, rich and poor. How a small group of radical activists was able to use the corporate world's rules against itself is one of the remarkable stories of the Australian environmental movement. Commonwealth Bank chairman Catherine Livingstone has a reputation for being tough. Friends of the Earth was founded in 1969 in San Francisco to fight what it said were the environmental effects of neoliberalism, corporate globalisation, neo-colonialism and militarism. Now present in 73 countries, it is distinguished from groups with similar aims, including Greenpeace, WWF and the Australian Conservation Foundation, by its democratic structure and anti-capitalist philosophy. Decisions are made by consensus, and there isn't a bank of passive supporters providing funding for a central group. An Australian arm was established in 1974, and helped lead opposition to attempts to expand uranium mining in the 1980s. Other causes include fighting nanotechnology and industrial chemicals. The group's big issue, though, is coal, and its contribution to global warming. Environmental groups have a long history of physically impeding new mines, and would sometimes protest at corporate offices or lobby big investors. But in Australia, no one had consistently targeted their sources of funding. Six years ago, Julien Vincent, a former Greenpeace organiser, joined Friends of the Earth with a mission to begin a sustained campaign to attack the mining industry financial supply chain. His one-man team was ironically dubbed Market Forces, signifying that capitalism would be used against itself. Under the Friends of the Earth's socialist model, Vincent and the other staff are paid $72,000 a year. Although not appreciated at the time, a law designed to advance shareholder democracy offered the almost-perfect mechanism to apply pressure to banks, insurers and other organisations. Five per cent of a public company's shares are required to propose a resolution at a shareholders' meeting – a threshold that is impossible to meet for an organisation as small as Friends of the Earth. For the Commonwealth Bank, it would require $7 billion. Vincent realised there was another way. One hundred shareholders could submit a resolution that would have to be voted on, no matter how small their investments. With online stockbroking making buying shares easy and cheap, the $7 billion in capital required shrank to $7000. The rule gave Vincent a way to apply pressure where a company was most sensitive to embarrassment: when the board faced its shareholders. Team effort What he needed was information about who to target and why – and the credibility to negotiate with battle-hardened top executives and, eventually, directors. He built up a team that waded through financial statements, identifying the sources of funding for big projects such as Adani's Carmichael coal mine in central Queensland. He looked for supporters inside the banks who wanted them out of mining, even though it is a lucrative industry that is important to the economy. Commonwealth Bank was one of its first targets. "Over five years we spent a lot of time researching where it was investing, comparing with its peers and making that information public," Vincent says. "It's a build-up over time that ultimately got a shift in policy direction." The strategy was successful. Market Forces is deploying it against the other big banks. Commonwealth Bank's annual report this year has a nine-page assessment of the risks from global warming, including on its wheat farmer clients, and includes a letter from Livingstone promising to end all financing of coal used in electricity generation by 2030. Market Forces' work coincided with an attitude change among many boards. Even though the causes of climate change remain bitterly contested among non-experts, many big companies became concerned about the legal risks of not disclosing their financial exposure to the warming climate, both from regulators and shareholder class actions. AGL directors at the shareholder meeting where a Market Forces resolution received 20 per cent support. Peter Braig An investor movement helped accelerate the shift, driven by international coalitions such as the 22-month-old Climate Action 100+, and the Investor Group on Climate Change in Australia. A week ago, 30 per cent of shares at AGL Energy's annual meeting were cast in favour of a Market Forces resolution, which the group had shown the company three months beforehand. The company, Australia's largest carbon emitter, plans to disclose enough information about its climate change exposure to avoid a similar resolution next year. “We think most investors find better mechanisms for engagement than shareholder resolutions – but it’s nonetheless a process we recognise and respect," AGL chairman Graeme Hunt said. "If groups like Market Forces remain focused on those kinds of [climate] issues and continue to engage transparently, we would expect to continue to have a constructive dialogue with them.” QBE insurance and Macquarie Group have also made concessions that pleased Market Forces. The group now has 18 staff, including contractors, and Vincent is paid $72,000 a year – the same as other Friends of the Earth employees under their socialist model. This year, it intends to propose shareholder resolutions at these companies: ANZ Banking Group, IAG, National Australia Bank, Origin Energy, Westpac Banking Corp and Suncorp Group, which will hold its annual meeting in Brisbane on Thursday. Next year, it plans to go after Rio Tinto. The proposals would appear to have no chance of being passed but are likely to attract considerable attention. They call on the companies to publish strategies to reduce exposure to oil, gas and coal, and meet what it interprets to be the Paris climate accord goal of ending the use of thermal coal in developed nations by 2030. The Business Council of Australia, a big-business lobby group, supports a carbon price and the Paris targets. But it has suggested that Market Forces and other similar groups should be challenged over their hardline position against coal, which the government and independent experts predict will remain an important source of electricity for many years. The Business Council has also raised the role of natural gas, another big Australian export, in reducing carbon emissions. https://www.afr.com/companies/finan...cba-out-of-coal-in-five-years-20190925-p52upw
Where is Australia's solar farms? They are like Florida on crack when it comes to sun exposure, and they are really huge. They have huge tracts of land that are uninhabited. WTF.
Solar is not ideal as it creates power demand or lack of during different weathers. Coal for example chugs on day and night, hot or cold and better suited for base load. Saying that, imo, gas is a better substitute, cleaner and cheaper when you consider maintenance. Coal is abrasive and creates large amounts of waste (ash & sulphur as well there is dust issues). Gas can be piped, coal needs to be transported. As more gas is discovered it gets cheaper. Solar ideally requires batteries and these are expensive and have size limitations. One day perhaps in Australia every house will have its own solar + battery, as you say, plenty of sun here.
'Tipping point': Energy regulator says electricity grid won't cope with more solar Eryk Bagshaw and Rob Harris September 25, 2019 — 11.55pm Australia’s ageing electricity grid risks being overwhelmed by solar panels unless the government and companies take urgent action to avoid higher power prices for consumers. The warning from the Australian Energy Market Commission follows a rapid uptake of household solar – it says the grid has reached a ‘‘tipping point’’ and will be unable to cope with the forecast penetration of renewables. Australia has the highest uptake of solar of any country in the world.Credit:Justin McManus The 20th century grid that connects the east-coast network was designed to handle large volumes of power from two dozen coal-fired power stations, but has struggled to maintain reliability when handling inputs from millions of different sources. Australia has the highest uptake of solar of any country in the world, with about 2.15 million rooftop systems installed nationwide. AEMC chairman John Pierce said the regulator "won't stand by and allow the current situation to continue" as energy networks are forced to cut off solar PV flows from the grid because of the power system's inability to connect to new technologies. "There are serious choices to be made. To keep building traditional infrastructure and passing on those costs to consumers or get on with the job of implementing reforms to increase access to the network for new solar connections," Mr Pierce said UNSW researchers break world record for solar cell efficiency Australian researchers find a way to hugely increase the efficiency of solar panels while substantially reducing their cost. The proportion of electricity generated by solar panels and wind turbines rose from 9.8 to 12.6 per cent of total generation in 2018. "Consumers are already doing their part and investing in their own rooftop energy generation but distribution networks are not moving quickly enough to realise the value of those investments," Mr Pierce said. The AEMC's economic regulatory framework review found a system that does not provide consumers with choice or reward supportive behaviours could drive up costs. Customers in NSW and Victoria are already battling energy price rises of up to 10 per cent a year. "Failure to act now would mean either fewer people are able to export solar to the grid, or all consumers will pay more to build new substations and poles and wires that are rarely needed," Mr Pierce said. The regulator's concerns echo those of the government-backed Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The $10 billion green bank is increasingly shifting its focus away from new renewable technologies towards bolstering the grid so that renewables can be transmitted. "I guess the speed of [grid scale renewables] has probably been faster than expected and therefore we have got to start investing in the grid to support that," Chief executive Ian Learmonth said in August. The Integrating distributed energy resources for the grid of the future report, to be released on Thursday, calls for distribution networks and the Australian Energy Regulator to focus on implementing cost-reflective network tariffs which reward customers who have invested in rooftop solar for using and storing electricity in ways that help the grid work most efficiently. It also proposes instead of consumers paying only for energy consumed, they would pay for access to the services they need through the network and be rewarded where they can provide services back to the grid. Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor said the government supported policies that provided flexibility and more choice for Australian consumers. "It is crucial that any changes put consumers first and focus on reducing costs," Mr Taylor said. "Australia is the world leader in residential solar, with around 20 per cent of households now having rooftop solar. Other distributed energy resources such as household battery storage and smart appliances are growing strongly. "With such a large and growing amount of distributed energy resources, it's critical that our energy system evolves to manage two-way energy flows safely and efficiently." https://www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...n-t-cope-with-more-solar-20190925-p52uvv.html