Press release – 8 April, 2015Sydney, April 8 2015 – Australia’s four largest banks should follow the lead set by three of France’s biggest banks and rule out financing the controversial Carmichael coal mining project in Queensland, Greenpeace Australia says.Greenpeace said the decision by BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Societe Generale to withhold funding for the coal industry projects in the Galilee Basin has further reduced an already shrinking pool of possible funders for India’s Adani Group, the lead proponent of the Galilee projects.
“The growing reluctance from international banks to fund mining projects in the Galilee has become a stampede and reinforces what we have always known, that these projects are not financially viable and are environmentally disastrous,” Greenpeace campaigner Marina Lou says.
Leading scientists warned last month that the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area is at risk of collapse from climate change and poor management and the proposed coal industry projects threaten to inflict permanent damage on the Reef, one of the world’s natural wonders. (1)
“The science is clear: we can have the Reef or coal mines, but we can’t have both. The Traditional Owners of the land, the Wangan and Jagalingou people, have also rejected the mining proposal. (2) It’s now time for Australian banks to make the right choice for Australia and refuse to finance such an environmentally and socially woeful project,” Lou added.
Credit Agricole issued the strongest refusal from international banks to date, stating that it does not intend to finance the project due to ‘the number and magnitude of issues linked to the planned coal development projects’.
BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Societe Generale are the latest in a cascade of global investment banks that have distanced themselves from the Galilee projects due to environmental impact concerns.
The others include Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. Recently, a news report said analysts at the State Bank of India have also raised questions about the credit and foreign exchange risk of financing the Carmichael mining project, and the fact that “nothing is moving” on the project. (3)
Notes
1.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/23/great-barrier-reef-campaign-   scientists-call-for-scrapping-of-coal-projects
2.
http: //wanganjagalingou.com.au/
3.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/03/13/india-adani-sbi-idINKBN0M914T20150313
For interviews, contact: In Australia: Elsa Evers (+61) 438 204 041 or Marina Lou: (+ 61) 404 098 163
In the UK: Areeba Hamid, (+44) 7826 851 291
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