Activists are urging shareholders in Australia’s largest investment bank to vote in favour of a resolution calling on the firm to disclose the full extent of its stakes in coal, oil and gas.
Environmental group Market Forces gathered outside the Macquarie Bank annual general meeting in Sydney’s CBD on Thursday alongside a four-metre-tall mock gas flare.
The bank is funding one of the biggest gas fracking developments in Australia, Market Forces researcher Kyle Robertson said, referring to the $100 million Beetaloo Basin gas project in the Northern Territory.
“A safe climate is the most financially beneficial option for the whole community,” he told AAP on Thursday.
“A scenario where we warm by catastrophic levels, which is what projects like this will ensure, is going to be disastrous for the community.
“So frankly, we’re here with all these people today to hold Macquarie to account.”
At the meeting, shareholders will vote on Macquarie’s first climate-focused shareholder resolution, calling on the $86 billion company to show how financing of fossil fuel projects aligns with its net-zero commitments.
Mr Robertson was joined at the protest by 19-year-old activist Owen Magee, who said the investment bank’s actions had a huge impact on the climate’s future.
“I am really concerned about how we’re destroying the lands of First Nations people who have been here for over 60,000 years,” he told AAP on Thursday.
“So for me, it’s really important to stand up for my future, but also stand up for communities around the world and across the country.”
Macquarie has more than doubled its financing for oil and gas in the past two years, Market Forces said.
In late 2024, the bank provided the funding for two of the gas companies most active in the Basin, Beetaloo Energy Australia and Tamboran Resources.
Australia’s Department of Industry, Science and Resources says Beetaloo has the potential to rival the world’s best gas projects, and developing it could create thousands of jobs and drive significant economic growth in the territory.
Macquarie board chair Glenn Stevens recommended shareholders reject the climate resolution during Thursday’s meeting.
The company has been consistent in its response to climate change over many years, and accepts the best available science, he said.
“We think that simply shutting down oil and gas today is not viable,” Mr Stevens said.
“We recognise the reality that even as Net Zero is pursued, the world will need carbon-based energy for quite some time.”
Market Forces says four global investors have backed the shareholder resolution: the pension funds of New York City, the UK’s Church of England and the largest private pension fund in Norway, as well as Melbourne-based fund manager ELM Responsible Investments.
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