Press release – 20 October, 2010Last night (Tuesday) Greenpeace launched a new campaign to illuminate the role of ANZ as the biggest financier of polluting coal power in Australia.Greenpeace activists projected a new ANZ logo and tag line "We Pollute Your World" onto a cooling tower at Yallourn – one of Australia’s dirtiest coal power stations and one of ten across the country financed by ANZ over the last five years.
A
report
released by Greenpeace reveals that while all four of Australia’s big banks are the major financers of coal, ANZ is officially the dirtiest bank in Australia.
Over the past five years, ANZ has poured nearly $1.6 billion dollars into coal infrastructure and is the biggest financier of coal power stations and coalmines.
This is despite ANZ topping the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for four years running and adopting a policy to be carbon neutral.
"ANZ have made much of its environmental awards," said Greenpeace campaigner, John Hepburn. "But these are meaningless if the bank continues to pour billions into financing pollution."
"We are at a major turning point," said Hepburn. "Today, we are faced with a new generation of 12 new polluting coal plants in the pipeline. That’s why we are asking ANZ CEO, Mike Smith, to commit not to finance new coal power stations in Australia."
VVPR info:
James Lorenz on 0400 376 021
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