FSU members recently took part in a Day of Action in Melbourne to demand ANZ lives up to its climate change commitments.
Thank you to our members who joined us with Market Forces, community organisations, ANZ customers, shareholders and staff outside ANZ’s headquarters to bring home the message that the big bank needs to stop funding coal, oil, and gas expansion.
Despite committing to the Paris Agreement in 2016, ANZ has poured more than $20 billion into the fossil fuel industry since then and $12 billion has gone directly to companies building new or expanded projects.
These investments make ANZ Australia’s biggest funder of fossil fuels since the agreement.
The FSU also joined with 43 organisations from across the world to sign a joint statement calling on ANZ to stop funding fossil fuel expansion because their policies are making climate change worse.
We support the call for ANZ to ‘be a responsible lender, live up to its commitments and stop funding fossil fuel expansion’.
Market Forces has also released its Banking Climate Failure report highlighting the massive scale of the banks’ investment in these industries.
Collectively, the big four banks have poured more than $61 billion into fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement. In the last year the banks have loaned $2.5 billion to companies with fossil fuel expansion plans.
But people power is working – the thousands of Australians who’ve stood up and demanded the big banks stop financing environmentally damaging activities are making an impact.
Last year, all of the big four banks announced that from 2025 they’ll require fossil fuel companies to produce credible transition plans demonstrating how their business plans are consistent with a safe climate and aligned with the Paris Agreement.
It’s a step in the right direction but we need to keep pressure on ANZ, and all of the banks, to be responsible lenders, live up to their commitments and stop funding fossil fuel expansion.
ANZ, if you truly want to ‘shape a world where people and communities thrive,’ stop supporting companies that undermine that possibility.
Get involved in our campaign for climate justice or find out more about the FSU Human Rights Network here.
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