Our Government might be isolating itself globally on climate change and pretending that if we just shut everything down it will go away but that doesn’t mean we are all powerless to take responsibility for our climate future.
Big financiers are stepping up to shift our economies away from high emissions technologies and environmental threatening industries. Deutsche Bank has withdrawn support for the coal loader at Abbott Point in the Great Barrier Reef. Investors will probably think more seriously about the potential that fossil fuel investments are potential stranded assets after the President of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, publicly supported divestment from carbon intensive assets.
In Australia Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has become the first major bank to publicly oppose investing in coal and gas projects, joining a number of big super funds making similar moves.
Thea Ormerod, president of the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change, recently gave a presentation at Rahamim demonstrating how individuals can benefit from channeling their investments away from fossil fuel industries.
As Thea explained, “voting with our feet” when we change our banking provider sends a significant message to the banks. She believes that, while recycling is beneficial to the environment, ethical investments (changing banks, super funds) are more effective in accelerating change toward a clean-energy future.
“Investing in an ethically managed fund or super fund is one of the biggest, yet easiest, things someone can do to make a real difference on a range of environmental and social issues.”
The World Bank has also modified its energy lending strategy to limit financing of coal-fired power plants to “rare circumstances” and only in countries that have “no feasible alternative” and the world’s largest public financial institution, the European Investment Bank, has also implemented restrictions.
See BCCAN website for more details. https://bccan.org.au/
Bathurst Community Climate Action Network is disappointed that Local Member John Cobb was not willing to meet with us to discuss the government’s plans for the future of renewable energy investment in this region and the benefits of low emissions energy generation.