Banks urged not to fund coal power as government moves to underwrite projects

Environmental and progressive activist groups are urging Australia’s major banks and financial institutions not to fund new coal projects now that the Morrison government has flagged taxpayer assistance for power generation.

 Government conservatives are focused on the Liddell
power station and want to use new ‘big stick’ powers
to extract the ageing plant from its owner AGL.

The Australian Conservation Foundation, GetUp, Greenpeace, Environment Victoria, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, the Australian Centre for Corporate Responsibility and the Australia Institute wrote on Thursday to chief executives of the major lenders, warning the provision of finance for new coal, or retrofits of old coal-fired power stations, would be inconsistent with their public commitments to the Paris agreement.

The pressure on financial institutions follows the energy minister, Angus Taylor, calling for expressions of interest in new power generation projects to be underwritten by taxpayers, including, potentially, new coal builds or retrofits.

Read the story from The Guardian by Katharine Murphy - “Banks urged not to fund coal power as government moves to underwrite projects.”