https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/14/commonwealth-banks-first-climate-policy-attacked-by-environmental-groups
The Commonwealth Bank’s first climate policy statement has been criticised by environmental groups and sparked one group to lodge a shareholder resolution to force the company to implement its stated commitment to the Paris agreement.
The bank released the statement, saying it was “reaffirming our support for a responsible global transition to a net zero emissions economy by 2050”.
It comes as the bank faces court action from two shareholders, suing it over allegedly inadequate climate-risk disclosure, and just days after it announced it would not be lending to Adani’s Carmichael coalmine. Adani said the statement simply reflected its own decision not to approach any Australian bank.
The short climate statement released by the bank follows a sustained campaign from environmental groups, who have attacked the bank over its previous failure to rule out financing the Adani coalmine, and its status as the country’s biggest lender to Australia’s fossil fuel industry in 2016.
The bank announced it would decrease the greenhouse gas pollution caused by its lending, as well as by its own business activity, but it didn’t provide details of how it would do so, or provide targets.
The Commonwealth Bank also committed to adopting the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, which means it will begin reporting all its direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, and include it in its financial filings, meaning they will be fully audited.
“Commonwealth Bank is not even pretending to make an effort on climate change with the position statement released today,” said Julien Vincent, the executive director of the environmental campaign group Market Forces.
He said they would lodge a shareholder resolution against the Commonwealth Bank on Wednesday, which would embed in the bank’s constitution its stated commitment to keeping global warming at less than 2C and force it to implement that commitment in the bank’s management.
