Climate Change Australia Hastings (CCA-H) is calling on the Commonwealth Bank to rule out funding for the Adani Carmichael mega coal mine in Queensland.
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CCA-H president Harry Creamer said the group believes that CommBank has a business relationship with the Adani group of companies on a number of levels.
“We are bitterly disappointed by CBA’s on-going involvement with the Adani Carmichael coal mine and associated infrastructure and we urge it to stop assisting Adani further,” Mr Creamer said.
“Funding one of the largest new coal projects in the world is completely inconsistent with the bank’s commitment to limit global warming to 2°C following the Paris Climate talks in late 2015,” he said.
“How can the bank justify involvement with this dangerous project? Climate science is telling us that four fifths of all known fossil fuel reserves (coal, oil and gas) must stay in the ground to have a 50 per cent chance of the planet staying within the +2°C limit of global warming”.
Over 20 major world banks have ruled out funding for Adani. Westpac’s new climate policy makes it clear that it will not fund the Adani Carmichael coal mine, Mr Creamer added.
“The Adani project is a huge mistake that would destroy our chances of holding global warming below 2°C, threaten the local natural environment, water table, farming, human health, and Indigenous land rights, and worst of all, hasten the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef,” he said.
“Does Australia’s largest bank really want to be implicated in the destruction of what is arguably Australia’s best-loved natural icon and tourist attraction employing 70,000 jobs?”
“Our Stop Adani launch attracted 120 people in Port Macquarie and these people and many more are expressing their commitment to stopping Adani in our local area. In towns and cities across Australia it’s clear there are tens of thousands of people taking part in the national Stop Adani campaign and this number is growing.”
Mr Creamer said the Stop Adani campaign will continue until the bank issues a public statement that rules out funding for the Adani Carmichael coal mine and associated infrastructure.